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Health · North America

Former FDA commissioners call for workforce rebuilding as HHS cites staff investment

Former FDA commissioners Califf, Gottlieb and Sharpless urged the agency to rebuild its workforce. HHS said it is investing in staff.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 2 independent reports from 3 outlets · Full text read from 1 of 2 reportsHow it's made

View timeline · 4 entries
3 outletsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Too few ratedL 0 · C 2 · R 0 · 1 unrated
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What happened

Key facts

  • Califf, Gottlieb and Sharpless urged the FDA to rebuild its workforce (per medicaldaily.com, inkl.com).
  • HHS said it is investing in staff (per medicaldaily.com, inkl.com).
  • The former leaders said the FDA workforce had been hit by cuts that began in 2025 (per medicaldaily.com).

The brief

Former FDA commissioners Califf, Gottlieb and Sharpless called for the agency to rebuild its workforce, while HHS said it is investing in staff. Medical Daily reported that the three former leaders made their appeal to a Boston audience on Oct. 14. They said the FDA workforce had been hit by cuts that began in 2025.

The former commissioners served under Democratic and Republican presidents, according to Medical Daily. The account identifies them as Califf, Gottlieb and Sharpless and describes their central message as a call for workforce rebuilding. In its headline, Nacionale characterizes the former commissioners’ position as criticism of current HHS leadership.

HHS’s stated position, as reported by Medical Daily, is that it is investing in staff. The department also said its broader overhaul would save taxpayers about $1.8 billion a year. These are separate statements in the account: the staff investment is HHS’s stated position, while the savings figure refers to the department’s broader overhaul.

Medical Daily reported that Kennedy described the restructuring as “realigning the organization with its core mission.” The account does not identify further details of that announcement beyond the quoted characterization and the department’s stated annual savings estimate. The reporting also gives an earlier HHS account of which jobs the FDA cuts affected.

An HHS spokesperson told the Associated Press in April 2025 that the cuts applied only to administrative positions. The statement is attributed to the spokesperson; the account does not provide a separate assessment of the claim.

The central issue is the difference between the former commissioners’ call to rebuild the workforce and HHS’s statements about investing in staff and restructuring the department. The account reports both positions but does not specify how many FDA jobs were cut or provide a breakdown of the workforce changes.

The documented next points are whether HHS’s stated staff investment addresses the workforce rebuilding urged by the former commissioners, and how the department’s restructuring relates to the savings estimate it gave.

Why it matters

  • FDA employees bear the direct workforce stakes: the former commissioners said cuts that began in 2025 hit the agency, while an HHS spokesperson said the cuts affected only administrative positions.
  • Taxpayers are the named group tied to HHS’s estimate that its broader overhaul would save about $1.8 billion annually.
  • The former commissioners’ call to rebuild the FDA workforce and HHS’s stated investment in staff put agency staffing at the center of the dispute over the department’s restructuring.

What to watch next

  • Whether HHS’s stated staff investment addresses the FDA workforce rebuilding urged by Califf, Gottlieb and Sharpless.
  • Whether HHS provides further detail on how its broader overhaul relates to its estimate of about $1.8 billion in annual taxpayer savings.
  • Whether HHS clarifies the scope of the FDA cuts beyond its spokesperson’s statement that they affected only administrative positions.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
3 source articles · 3 unique outlets · 2 distinct reports
Coverage mix: Too few rated· 2 Center
Where the outlets are based: Europe 33% · Global 33% · Other 34%
Coverage mix
Too few rated
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
2 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
3 unique outletsDominant coverage: Europe
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. The FDA’s statutory roots reach back to the Pure Food and Drugs Act, signed on June 30, 1906.
    Background · from our historical context
  2. In 1930, Congress adopted the name “Food and Drug Administration” for the agency.
    Background · from our historical context
  3. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1938, gave the FDA authority to oversee the safety of drugs and cosmetics and to regulate food.
    Background · from our historical context
  4. The Kefauver-Harris Amendments, signed on October 10, 1962, required drugmakers to provide evidence of a medicine’s effectiveness as well as its safety before approval.
    Background · from our historical context

How we got here

Cuts to the Food and Drug Administration’s workforce began in 2025, according to reporting on former commissioners Robert Califf, Scott Gottlieb and Ned Sharpless; the agency’s staffing needs are tied to responsibilities expanded by decades of federal law.

Califf served as FDA commissioner from 2016 to 2017 and again from 2022 to 2025, Gottlieb from 2017 to 2019, and Sharpless from 2019 to 2020. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1938, gave the FDA authority to oversee the safety of drugs and cosmetics and to regulate food.

Original sources

1 of 3 articles · Europe · Show all

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