Dive Summary:
- If Congress doesn't come to an agreement on cost cutting measures, all government agencies will face an 8.2% cut in funding in 2013.
- Most analysts think this would be dire for departments like the FDA, USDA and CDC, all three considered perennially underfunded.
- With the surge in food borne illness in the past couple of months, as well as the newly instated FSMA and countless legal battles on its plate, most analysts think an 8.2% cut would just about cripple the FDA.
From the article:
“There is no fixed list of activities that the FDA will drop without this money, but significant programmatic and manpower reductions would be impossible to avoid,” according to Stephen Grossman, the deputy executive director for the Alliance. “Mission failure may not be an option for FDA, but it will be very hard to avoid.”
Michael Taylor, FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods, said in September he believes sequestration would be “a huge blow to our progress on food safety.”
