Marty McCurry, a career surgeon and presidential candidate who runs Trump's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), faced the senator at a confirmation hearing Thursday and worked with the Make America Healthy Agenda to stop approving the recent controversial decision.
McCurry's hearing before the Senate's Health, Education and Work Pensions Committee was relatively tame, as was the previous day's Jay Bhatacharya hearing for the National Institutes of Health, especially compared to the confirmation process of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
McCurry, a public policy researcher and professor at Johns Hopkins University, is a prominent skeptic of the Covid-19 lockdown and frequently appeared on Fox News during the pandemic. He relied on his career in research when making his point before the committee.
“I believe in the scientific process, and I also believe that we can use common sense,” McCurry said in his opening remarks. “President Trump and Secretary Kennedy's focus on healthy foods is driving the grassroots movement in America. Childhood obesity is not a problem of willpower, and the rise in early-onset Alzheimer's disease is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will tackle foods that affect our health.”
Democrats hammered McCurry in a recent move by the Trump administration, shoving plans to cut FDA staff and exercise powers against drugs, such as abortion pirmifepristone.
Ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) left before the questioning portion of the hearing began, but said “it doesn't matter who the next FDA commissioner is.” I think everyone on this committee understands who the American people run the government,” he says of Elon Musk.
Three important takeaways from the hearing are:
McCulley says he will resume vaccine committee meetings
As Kennedy was confirmed as HHS's secretary, the FDA suddenly cancelled a meeting dedicated to discussing the next flu vaccine strain, without a specific reason.
Help Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lamented the development and said it had “resced” Kennedy's promise of transparency. Cassidy asked McCully how she would be transparent if confirmed as an FDA commissioner.
“I wasn't involved in that decision. Certainly, if confirmed, if you take office, you have my commitment to see it. As you know [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC)] Let's take a look at guidance and recommendations from international groups such as: [Global Influenza Programme] International Consortium,” McCurry said.
However, FDA candidates appear to be having problems with the impact of the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Program on U.S. flu vaccine policies, and support independence from such international groups.
When pushed against senators on either side of the aisle at the cancelled meeting, McCurry repeatedly distanced himself, saying he was not involved in the decision.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Mayne) asked whether he would reconvene the VRBPAC meeting if confirmed, and said, “The VRBPAC committee will be confirmed and if I am the commissioner we will have a meeting.”
Commit to “independent scientific review” of important abortion drugs
If confirmed, McCurry believes it has had a major impact on access to drugs in the United States, including mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly taken for medical abortions.
According to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), McCurry said at an office meeting that he was “clear” about “the overwhelming scientific conclusions on the safety of the drug.”
He didn't confirm these statements on Thursday, instead replied that the FDA's risk assessment and mitigation strategy “needs ongoing data collection,” and that he would not pre-evaluate the data before looking at it.
Mifepristone (D-Wash.), who was approved for use in abortion in 2000, asked McArie if he committed to supporting “scientific evidence-based drug approval of all FDA-approved products.”
“Senator Murray, you have my commitment to following an independent science review process at the FDA. It's a proven process and it's there, so that's my commitment to you,” McCurry said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (DN.H.) doubled the issue and challenged McCurry with his claim that he would remain an “independent scientist” amid growing political rhetoric about abortion.
“There is no preconceived notion that we will make changes to Mifepristone's policies,” McCurry told Hassan, but speculated that there may be unidentified drug interactions that the FDA can identify in the future.
“Make it happy” to rehire fired FDA employees
McCurry, similar to the decision to cancel the FDA's flu vaccine meeting, has distanced himself from recent department layoffs and reiterated that he has not been involved in these decisions.
FDA employees were among thousands of probation workers fired from HHS last month, but some employees overseeing areas such as medical equipment and food ingredients. I hired A few days later.
Collins notes that many FDA employees are not paid in taxpayer dollars, and their salaries are instead funded through user fee agreements.
McCulley said it will implement “agency staffing and personnel assessments.”
He responded in a similar way to Senator Angela of Brooks (D-Md.) when asked directly whether to rehire fired FDA scientists, such as those working on avian flu reactions. Also, Brooks had no point in firing FDA staff to save taxpayers dollars.
“If an employee hasn't been logged on to a VPN in two years, they don't want to rehire an individual. But if there's someone who deserves the look, of course I'm happy to see it.”
Layoffs are being carried out by the government's Efficiency Bureau. Trump reportedly reportedly said his cabinet staff were there. I'll be completely in charge Of each division, there is no need to give control to Musk and Doge.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said the FDA's shortage of staffing has caused “chaos” and “severe morale problems.” He questioned how McCurry would ensure that the FDA would retain its position as advocating for the gold standards of science around the world, if there were no adequate inspectors on his staff.
After initially repeating that he was not involved in such decisions, McCurry said “we will conduct an ongoing assessment to ensure that scientists and food directors have all the resources needed to do their job.”
