An “indiscriminate” staffing decision had one FDA official tendering his resignation as the White House remained unfazed: “It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.”
As the Department of Government Efficiency continues to expose areas of waste in spite of obstructionist Democratic lawfare, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, 89 staffers have been terminated from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In response, Jim Jones, head of the FDA’s food division, fired off a resignation letter to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner claiming it would be “fruitless for me to continue in this role.”
“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” wrote Jones in the letter reported by Bloomberg News.
Claiming the cuts were “indiscriminate,” the resigned official alleged President Donald Trump’s administration held “disdain for the very people” necessary to implement change as he lamented those fired included employees with “highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response.”
Prior to Kennedy’s confirmation and Trump’s return to the White House, Jones was credited as responsible for the FDA’s band of Red No. 3, an artificial food dye long-banned from cosmetics after it was found to promote the growth of cancerous tumors in rats.
A petition submitted to the FDA in 2022 cited two studies that found rats had developed cancer after exposure to high levels of FD&C Red No. 3 while noting the same results were not corroborated with humans.
FDA bans cancer-linked food dye ahead of RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing https://t.co/Z04GALD6BC
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) January 16, 2025
In response to Jones’ resignation, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Bloomberg News in an email that some “bureaucrats” remained resistant to the “mandate delivered by the American people.”
“President Trump is only interested in the best and most qualified people who are also willing to implement his America First Agenda on behalf of the American people,” she noted. “It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay.”
Meanwhile, Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs at Environmental Working Group argued that the resignation from Jones would “set back efforts to make food safer.”
“There is no one on earth who can replace the chemical safety expertise that Jim brought to this job,” he told the outlet.
Of course, what would or would not “make food safer” has become a matter of partisan debate as establishment figures within Congress seemed determined to block Kennedy’s confirmation over his stance that the United States return to “gold standard science” and eliminate conflicts of interest that he faulted in part for the chronic disease epidemic.
As it happens, with the FDA falling under the purview of HHS, it was one of the many agencies that leftists sought to keep DOGE from accessing as Trump aims to drain the swamp for good. At the time of this post, a confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled from Trump’s nominee for FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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