Alexander: Lifting of FDA Hiring Freeze Meets a Top Bipartisan Senate Priority

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 25, 2017 – The chairman of the Senate health committee today said lifting the hiring freeze at the Food and Drug Administration meets a top bipartisan Senate priority in the 21^st Century Cures law.

“We asked the Food and Drug Administration last year to tell us the single most important thing we could do to help move safe drugs and devices more quickly into patients’ medicine cabinets and doctors’ offices. And they said it was to allow them to hire talented people and pay them more competitively,” said Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “Today’s announcement is exactly what the committee asked Secretary Price and Commissioner Gottlieb to do.”

The 21^st Century Cures law passed last year included provisions improving the FDA’s ability to hire and retain top scientific minds. 

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