Senior Official Supervised Drugs and Food safety inspection He had decided to leave the agency on Monday, and several federal health officials told CBS News that it was frustrated by inspectors of the new FDA commissioner.
Michael Rogers worked with the FDA for more than three decades and eventually served as the agency’s deputy commissioner for inspection and investigation. Colleagues said they were surprised to find that his last day in the office would be May 14.
"I decided to retire. It was my decision, but it was 34 years from now," Rogers told CBS News in an email on Monday.
Rogers’ tenure on the agency’s inspection workforce is full of challenges. He is a senior official who oversees food inspections Infant formula crisis In 2022, when the agency complained about the misconducted formula factories related to the fatal recall, people complained about the troubled formula factories. He also oversaw the resulting restructuring of the FDA Inspection Office in 2024.
Two FDA officials who spoke on anonymous said Rogers had privately told colleagues that he was in pain in recent days because the agency’s inspection office had moved from a comprehensive cut to by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has publicly touted plans to expand foreign surprise inspections, although the agency has privately worked hard to keep up with the inspections Due to layoffsretire early and resign.
Makary announced at the White House on Monday that he plans to cut the time for foreign inspections, claiming the move will lead to more inspections.
"We aren't going to let our inspectors hang out for three to four weeks, either. They'll be in and out, so we'll be using the same checks as the same resources for more checks."
Current and former FDA officials said they were confused by Makary’s claims given that longer travel in the past was an efficiency measure designed to enable the agency to complete more inspections.
Instead of spending money and exhausted, the agency flew employees into a country for each inspection, officials said, but combined multiple inspections together.
"So they will double or triple the cost of flights from foreign inspections and put my people in a state of eternal lag," an FDA official told CBS News.
Several officials warned that the agency’s workforce morale consumed due to the long-term challenges of hiring and retaining investigators.
“No one is 'hang out.' You check Monday to Friday if you are lucky you have weekend recovery.
Officials also said it is impossible to increase the number of foreign inspections while reducing the length of foreign travel without cutting oversight.
FDA officials and external auditors have carefully studied how long the agency will take to complete its oversight work as it has been working to reduce the backlog of foreign inspections and complaints.
"It's pretty basic math. We know how long it takes for inspection activities. If they get shorter, what inspection activities we will no longer perform."