By Michael Erman, Patrick Wings and Marisa Taylor
(Reuters) – The Elon Musk Doge team has reduced hundreds of jobs paid from banks fees, medical companies and other forms of funding, not taxpayer dollars, raising the abbreviations whether they will hope for savings.
Most of about 200 Food and Drug Administration employees have shot over the weekend, occupying jobs that have been paid for fees charged to medical producers under a 2002 law, according to former employees and sources familiar with the question, The exhaustion of employees needed to approve the medically necessary products such as stents and implants for consumers. Overall, the FDA has about 20,000 workers.
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“The bigger part of those who will be terminated as a result are recent rents … funded through consumer fees. So as a result, the federal government will not save money,” said Scott Whitaker, CEO of the medical director Medical rechargeable group from the device industry.
“If these cuts are not reversed, there is no doubt that this will slow down the process of new technologies to get to the market and reach patients,” he added.
Two financial regulatory agencies that do not rely on direct taxpayer dollars have also reduced staff in recent days. The Financial Protection Bureau of Consumer Protection, which is funded by the Federal Reserve, fires dozens of testing and term workers, and the Federal Corporation for investment insurance dismissed over 100 breakthrough workers as part of staff reductions across the country. FDIC Operations Bank Fees Fund.
US President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, one of his closest advisers, have launched an extensive campaign to reduce the size of 2.3 million federal workforce, shooting with thousands of staff in unprecedented efforts that show no signs of delay.
Their cuts in the FDA include employees inspecting the brain implanted company of Elon Musk Neuralink. The main repair of CFPB is coming as Musk X has recently announced a VISA transaction to provide payment services to customers on the social media platform. CFPB is the main federal regulator loaded with police laws for non -bank financial companies.
Although there is a common agreement between the Democrats and the Republicans, the US government has been filled with waste and excessive staff, speed and fuzzy in recent weeks have raised questions from agency employees and some MPs regarding the purpose of reductions and savings they will produce.
“FDIC is funded through fees paid by banks, so reducing the cost of FDIC does nothing to reduce the federal budget,” says Jeremy Kres, a law professor at Michigan University.
FDIC declined to comment. The White House and CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
The total number of FDA shooting is unknown. But a source of the industry said at least 180 of the dismissed FDA employees are occupying jobs funded by the Consumer and Modernization Act, according to which companies pay for review of their products. FDA manager, who talks about anonymity, said it was also said at 180 and that it was not said what would happen to the fees already paid.
Reuters talks to five former FDA officials who have confirmed that they have been fired by MDUFA -funded roles.
One who refused to be baptized with fear of retribution, said during his last year of the term, their team reviewed 100 files that collectively generated over $ 1 million in revenue for the agency. Files include new dispatches to devices, marketing applications and other materials that medical devices need approval before providing users to users. Reuters could not independently check the amount.
As part of the agreement with medical producers observed by Congress, the FDA aims to fulfill the hiring goals every year since the latest iteration of MDUFA. Many of these rents from 2023 and 2024 would still be test employees and would probably be shortened.
According to the latest financial document on the agreement published by the FDA, the agency hired 141 employees to meet the MDUFA instructions in 2023 and aimed at 42 more last year.
Nine other former US Health and Human Services Officers, interior and agriculture who spoke with Reuters, provided for anonymity, said they were also fired, despite their roles funded by consumer fees, non -governmental funds and other forms of private funding.
A spokesman for the US Department of Agriculture said it seeks to “ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve people, not bureaucracy.”
Some of their jobs were to regulate tobacco products and check the import of plant and animal products to prevent the spread of invasive species and plant diseases in the United States. One was responsible for protecting the endangered species in Yosemite National Park.
FDA is collecting hundreds of millions of dollars every year from companies under the MDUFA Act. It was envisaged to raise nearly $ 400 million in consumer fees from medical producers last year, most of whom go for salaries and operating expenses for employees at the FDA Device and Radiological Health Center.
A spokesman for the agency was not available immediately for comment.
(Report by Michael Erman, Marisa Taylor and Patrick Wingrov, additional reporting by Pete Schroeder and Rachel Levy; Editing by Chris Sanders and Anna Driver)