Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Short List For FDA Chief Includes Prospects Supportive Of RFK Jr.'s Policy Agenda
The New York Times: Trump To Nominate Heidi Overton, A Top Domestic Policy Aide, For F.D.A. Commissioner
President Trump plans to nominate Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House domestic policy official and a proponent of the administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that has had significant staff turnover and political interference in recent months, according to two senior administration officials. Last week, she stood alongside President Trump as he signed a third executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccinations, which has no legal power and has been broadly criticized by public health experts. ... Dr. Overton, a physician, is currently deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. A former chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, she has also written articles that denounced abortion as “corrosive” to women and called for more controls over the prescribing of abortion pills. (Jewett, 8/18)
NOTUS: Rep. Buddy Carter Emerges As A Dark Horse Candidate To Lead The FDA
The White House is considering Republican Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia to be the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a source familiar with the administration’s thinking confirmed Tuesday. Choosing Carter for the position would be a pivot for the White House. His name has not been on previously reported short lists for the position. (Winfield Cunningham and Giorno, 8/18)
In other FDA news —
MedPage Today: Watchdog Urges HHS To Investigate Conflicts Among FDA's Peptide Panelists
A consumer watchdog group is demanding that the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) look into potential conflicts of interest among members of an FDA advisory committee that recommended that six peptides be added to the list of substances that can be compounded, despite a lack of evidence of their efficacy. (Frieden, 8/18)
More news about the Trump administration —
NOTUS: Court Declines To Overturn EPA Designation Of Two ‘Forever Chemicals’
A federal court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of two “forever chemicals,” PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous substances. The designation expands the federal government’s power to hold parties that release chemicals into the environment liable for their cleanup under the Superfund law, also known as CERCLA. It also creates requirements for notifications when more than one pound of those chemicals are released. (Hoplamazian, 8/18)
AP: Some CDC Programs Live On Without Staff
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has an Alzheimer’s disease program. Congress appropriated $41 million to it this year. There’s just no one staffing it. Then there’s the agency’s Office on Smoking and Health. Congress allocated $246 million for that. Its staffers were cut, too. (Stobbe, 8/18)
