FDA: Are They in Need of More Money?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for monitoring approximately 80% of the United State's food supply. Their responsibilities also extend to all prescription and over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, lotions, soaps, and many medical devices. A recent audit conducted by an FDA subcommittee found that their own agency is failing to fulfill its duties, largely due to a lack of available resources such as money, personnel, and technology. The subcommittee estimated that FDA funding would need to more than double by 2013 to correct this, as the FDA has operated under budget shortfalls for over 20 years.

Food safety is rarely a topic we hear discussed in any political debates or platforms, but it affects each of us on a daily basis. If this is such an important topic, the question may be asked why we don't hear more about it.

I'm not surprised that the FDA hasn't come up in any of the recent political debates or speeches. It's not because it's not important, (everyone would agree that food safety is a top priority) but because the majority of voters care about other issues, such as oil drilling, the war in Iraq and lipstick on pigs. Discussing the need to improve the FDA would put a sour taste in a voter's mouth. Also, it would require an increase in government spending; which means either increased taxes or cutting other government benefits and services.

So what should be done? I don't think that just throwing money at the problem will make it go away. From 1998 to 2008 the annual budget of the FDA has increased almost 240% Recently President Bush increased the FDA's budget for '09 by an additional 129.7 million dollars, giving them a total of 2.4 billion to work with this next year. So with the increase of money the past couple of years, it seems as if the FDA could make some nice improvements. Well, they have... at least to their own salaries. Out of the pool of "desperately needed money", top executives have been getting some pretty nice bonuses. The following is quoted from Health Imaging News:

"It is outrageous that bonuses for top officials at FDA increased by nearly 30 percent over the past year despite the agency's poor management," stated Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the committee's investigations panel reviewing FDA compensation. "The additional $8 million the FDA spent on bonuses from April 2007 to April 2008 could have been better spent hiring additional inspectors or improving IT systems, actions FDA acknowledges are critical to improving food and drug safety in this country."

I think that the FDA does need to make some changes. They don't necessarily need to go through a complete overhaul and split its responsibilities to new departments but they do need to manage its resources better. By putting some of its new funds into newer technology and doing things electronically instead of by hand, this would save time and money. Hopefully the FDA can and will be able to learn how to work with what they have before any major outbreaks happen. Until then, just be careful when eating any suspicious vegetables.