Posted by Michael Wonder on 21 Jun 2018
White House proposes a narrowing of FDA’s mission — and a new name
21 June 2018 - The Trump administration has proposed a fundamental change to the mission of the FDA, one that would transfer most of the responsibility for regulating food safety to the Department of Agriculture and rename the FDA the “Federal Drug Administration.”
The proposal is part of a wide-reaching plan that was released Thursday by the White House and that includes other broader ideas to reform the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS would be renamed the “Department of Health and Public Welfare” and absorb some food assistance programs currently run by the USDA.
The idea of changing a key mission of the FDA comes amid a turf war between the FDA and the USDA. The two agencies have recently battled over who gets to regulate lab-grown meat, Politico reported last week. And in May, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke about the importance of his agency regulating genetically engineered animals.
