04-15-2025
The Associated Press secured a copy of an internal email from the Food and Drug Administration telling some employees that they do not have to return to the office.
FDA staffers returned to work in mid-March based on an order they received this year. The agency instituted a hybrid work arrangement decades before the COVID-19 pandemic. It used the perk of working two days a week from home to help recruit highly-trained experts who could earn higher pay working outside the federal government. A substantial amount of FDA funding comes from outside industries (i.e., drug, device, and tobacco companies). If FDA funding falls below set levels, these companies are no longer required to pay into the agency according to their agreements.
The FDA email states that review staff and supervisors may “resume telework” at least two days a week. Hundreds of drug reviewers received the email. In addition, reviewers who handle vaccines, biotech drugs, medical devices, and tobacco products received a similar communication. An FDA spokesperson told the AP that the agency is returning to “pre-COVID telework arrangements for reviewers” and that their “read and write work output is tracked in 15-minute increments to ensure productivity and accountability.” These reviewers are not expected to be impacted by the anticipated staff cuts across the agency. Sources interviewed by AP have interpreted the RTO mandate changes as evidence that the new FDA commissioner is working to rebuild teams and “restart the engine of productivity.”