The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disbanded two food safety advisory committees, the panels’ members told Reuters on Friday.
The Context
President Donald Trump and billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have laid off tens of thousands of federal workers and disbanded a number of federal agencies since Trump took office as part of an effort to dramatically shrink the size of the government.
The cuts have affected almost every government agency, including those that oversee the nation’s nuclear arsenal, control the U.S. financial system, work on disease prevention, ensure the safety of the country’s food supply, monitor natural disasters, and more.
What To Know
According to the consumer advocacy group Consumer Reports, the USDA eliminated the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection.
Per Consumer Reports, the two committees offered scientific guidance to the USDA and other federal agencies on food safety-related public health issues.
The committee on microbiological criteria for foods was disbanded following Trump’s executive order directing a streamlining of government operations, according to a March 6 email the USDA sent to committee members that was reviewed by Reuters.
The USDA is one of multiple public health-related federal agencies that have seen drastic downsizing in recent weeks. The Trump administration also made cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both of which are housed under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Earlier this week, the CDC tried to reverse some of those cuts and invited nearly 200 workers who were laid off last week to return to work.
“We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused,” the health agency, whose primary job is fighting and monitoring disease outbreaks, said in an email to workers obtained by the Associated Press.
The emails were sent on Tuesday to 180 of the roughly 1,300 CDC employees who were terminated last month when the Trump administration slashed the agency’s workforce by 10 percent.
The CDC’s efforts to rehire employees come as the U.S. is seeing a spike in measles cases in at least nine states: Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.
What People Are Saying
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, told Reuters: “The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming.”
What Happens Next
A USDA spokesperson told Reuters the agency remains committed to food safety.
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