Eight years ago, the first Trump Administration (Trump 1.0), came into office with the stated intent of reducing regulation, shrinking the federal workforce, and cutting agency budgets.

They were quick out of the gates with their plans. For the most part, FDA was not specifically targeted, but many (if not most) of the proposals would have impacted the agency. Understandably, it created a lot of concern among agency employees and stakeholders…

Chuck Jolley of Food Safety News recently wrote to me and several others asking: With so many high-profile recalls in 2024, have the federal, state, and local institutions responsible for oversight suddenly failed us? Or is something else happening?

INAUGURAL EDITION—January 10, 2025

FDA Matters: The Grossman FDA Report provides short-form analysis and commentary on FDA policy and regulatory issues.

The election spurred fears that a large number of federal scientists and public health staff at FDA might resign from their government posts. The potential for that was elevated by President-elect Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be Secretary of HHS. His anti-vaccine stance is widely seen as a threat to science-based decisionmaking at the agency.