CSPI, Public Citizen on FDA
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
The Center for Science in the Public Interest and Public Citizen assert that the White House and Congress have "hampered the agency," in a June 27 release. The consumer groups charge that the Administration is at fault for causing FDA to be without a permanent commissioner "for roughly 70% of the Bush presidency" and that Congress has "abdicat[ed] much of its oversight responsibility" as well as "slash[ed] the headquarters staffing" of the agency's Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition by 11% since 1978. CSPI and Public Citizen point out that FDA's civil servants need more resources to do their jobs effectively and present a litany of concerns about certain agency programs and practices that are under-performing or problematic. Public Citizen cites FDA's lack of enforcement action on companies marketing unapproved nicotine-containing beverages for smoking cessation as dietary supplements and criticizes the drug and device user fee systems. The agency's food-related "failures" include the "misleading" qualified health claims program...