Recent Ethical Controversies At NIH Draw Congressional Attention
The House Appropriations Committee has included more transparency requirements for both NIH and the CDC Foundation in their annual reports. Meanwhile, in a report to Congress, the FDA suggested that the ability to offer higher salaries to their employees be expanded.
The National Institutes of Health has hit a series of ethical snags in recent years, with questions about whether work funded by nonprofit groups has come with too many conditions attached or otherwise failed to meet certain ethical standards. Congress has taken notice. In what amounts to a written warning from Capitol Hill, a House committee last week included language in a spending agreement that emphasizes existing requirements on funding from the Foundation for the NIH and the CDC Foundation. (Facher, 7/2)
聽In a recent report to Congress, the Food and Drug Administration expressed gratitude for a 2016 law that enabled the agency to pay some staff higher salaries and hire them more quickly. It has also intimated that it would be useful for Congress to expand those powers to more staff in the future. The FDA has long faced challenges hiring staff, due in part to bureaucratic hangups, and in part due to the fact that the agency is competing with the private sector, which can afford to pay employees more. (Swetlitz, 7/2)
And in other news out of the agencies聽鈥
The head of the nation's top public health agency once opposed condoms and needle exchange programs as ways to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This week, in one of his first media interviews since taking office, Dr. Robert Redfield Jr. said his views have changed. "I think the data is just clear that these strategies work. When you see evidence that these strategies work, you need to embrace them," said Redfield, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stobbe, 6/29)
One staffer publicly mocked senators who criticized Donald Trump as 鈥渃lueless鈥 and 鈥渃razy.鈥 Another accused Hillary Clinton of having a campaign aide killed and employing pedophiles. A third wrote the 鈥渟hameful鈥 press was trying to deny Trump his victories. These are not faceless trolls but midlevel political appointees at the Health and Human Services Department who have helped shape the agency鈥檚 communications strategy 鈥 even while taking a page out of President Donald Trump鈥檚 playbook. (Diamond, 6/29)
