With the arrival of newly elected Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. right around the corner, uncertainty and concern remains within the Food and Drug Administration.
Will RFK Jr. follow through with his promise to remove individuals responsible for pulling the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19? Or Those engaged in the suppression of raw milk and chelating compounds?
GEL Partner, Kevin Owen, recently shared his thoughts with GovExec.com.
“A secretary just can’t come in and start firing,” said Kevin Owen, a partner at the law firm Gilbert Employment Law.
“[Senior executives] can be moved around, they can be sidelined…they have less recourse [than career civil servants],” Owen said. “As a general rule, the higher up the management chain you go, the less protections you have.”
Owen emphasized that it is normal after presidential transitions for senior executives to be moved around based on the new administration’s priorities. But Kennedy could reassign HHS staff to roles that are at odds with the agency’s past work.
“If you’re going to prioritize [then] you’re going to have to move executives over there to help that mission. Maybe [Kennedy] wants to fast track raw milk. He may want to set up internally within the FDA a raw milk review board to propose policy and come up with ways that raw milk can hit the shelves,” Owen said. “But you’re going to have to have people to do that. I’m not sure we’re going to see as much of the ‘you were against raw milk, therefore you’re fired.’”
To learn more and read the full Government Executive article, click here.
