Ranking Member Bishop Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for the Food and Drug Administration

Congressman Sanford Bishop (D-GA-2), Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's fiscal year 2025 budget request hearing for the Food and Drug Administration:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you, Commissioner Califf, for joining us today to discuss the Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA plays a crucial role in ensuring that Americans have access to the safest and most affordable food as well as a cutting-edge medicine and medical devices.

To do this, Congress must ensure that the FDA has the resources and the workforce it needs as well as the ability to be guided by sound science, free from political persuasion, to fulfill its mission and maintain the public’s trust.

Yet, I expect much of our conversation today to focus on accountability and transparency in how the FDA moves forward.

So much has taken place in the two years since you were confirmed – from the infant formula crisis to the Human Foods reorganization. Now we have ongoing eye product recalls and report record-high drug shortages.

When you were here last year, we discussed my concerns regarding domestic and foreign inspections.

In addition to our concerns about the safety of our food and drug supply, we must remain vigilant about ensuring that tainted black market and underground economy traded illicit products such as alcohol, firearms, and tobacco are not making their way into our country. We are aware of the Chinese cartels that wish to profit off the illicit market.

I look forward to hearing from you, Commissioner, about how the FDA is working in conjunction with its partners in the federal government to ensure that illicit products containing potentially deadly chemicals, like fentanyl, are not making it into the country.

Our domestically produced agriculture is subject to rigorous oversight. That will most certainly not be the case for illicit products that are trafficked by criminal enterprises and organizations.

Furthermore, it appears that FDA intends to cut funding from state and local inspection programs. So, I am curious to know how this has and will affect FDA’s work here at home.

The stakes are high, and people’s lives are at stake. It is reasonable to say that your response to these challenges has a tremendous impact on our country’s security and Americans’ well-being.

So, I look forward to hearing from you how FDA is providing Americans with access to the highest quality, safest, most abundant and affordable food, fiber, medicine and medical devices.

I look forward to your testimony.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back.