NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

Dingell on FDA Bonuses

Washington, DC – As part of its ongoing investigation into compensation practices at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Committee on Energy and Commerce has released data showing that FDA bonuses in excess of $4,000 rose from $27 million in 2006 to $35 million in 2007. Many of the “retention” bonuses went to the agency’s highest-paid officials, rather than the inspectors on staff. In 2007, FDA’s chief of regulatory affairs received $48,663 in cash bonuses while the highest bonus paid to a field inspector was $2,500.

“This is yet another example of the failure of FDA management to understand that its sole purpose for existence is to protect the American people from unsafe food, drugs and medical devices,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. “These back-scratching bonuses could be used to hire inspectors that might have gone to China and uncovered the unsafe manufacturing practices that led to the heparin deaths, or the tomato packers that shipped salmonella to hundreds of Americans. Some of the extraordinary compensation paid to medical doctors that review drugs are justified, but millions of taxpayer dollars are being paid to people that perform no scientific function at all. More disgracefully is that these bonuses are not being paid to retain the field workforce, inspectors, lab analysts and other dedicated FDA employees on the front lines who have their fingers in an increasingly leaky dike.”

Federal workers in Washington make an average of approximately $88,000 a year. As a result of FDA’s bonuses, many FDA managers and employees earn upwards of $200,000 -- more than Members of Congress and Cabinet Secretaries.

Click here for more Information on the Committee’s investigation into FDA’s compensation practices.

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