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# FDA Mum on Hiring Freeze and Staff RIFs
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-mum-on-hiring-freeze-and-staff-rifs/
- Published: 2025-07-14T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T15:16:29.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5159498

FDA is facing new uncertainty over its staffing and regulatory capacity following sweeping federal hiring restrictions and a pivotal Supreme Court decision, both issued last week. Under a new executive order (*Ensuring Accountability and Prioritizing Public Safety in Federal Hiring)* signed by president Trump, a government-wide civilian hiring freeze is now in effect through 10/15, halting nearly all new federal hires — including at the FDA — unless explicitly approved by presidential appointees such as commissioner **Marty Makary**. Simultaneously, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the government to proceed with long-watched reduction-in-force (RIF) terminations, which could remove thousands of FDA employees whose positions were previously protected by legal injunctions.

“For FDA-regulated sectors — including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food safety, and cosmetics—this convergence of executive and judicial action could have immediate and longer-term consequences such as regulatory delays or disruptions,” according to a [post on FDALawBlog.com](https://www.thefdalawblog.com/2025/07/federal-hiring-shake-up-again-what-the-latest-executive-action-and-supreme-court-decision-mean-for-industry/?ref=fdaweb.com). “This large-scale personnel reduction at FDA could slow review timelines for applications, and already has in the case of [one new drug application](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250613608281/en/KalVista-Pharmaceuticals-Announces-FDA-Will-Not-Meet-PDUFA-Goal-Date-for-Sebetralstat-NDA-for-Hereditary-Angioedema-Due-to-FDA-Resource-Constraints?ref=fdaweb.com), and guidance issuance.”

FDA has not publicly addressed whether it will begin implementing these terminations or how it will navigate the hiring freeze. A request to HHS by ***FDA Webview*** on how the hiring freeze could affect FDA user fee-related hires was not returned by press time.