Bush Administration Seeking Candidates with Bioterrorism, Sexual Health Expertise for Top HHS Positions

The Bush administration is seeking candidates who have expertise in bioterrorism and sexual health to fill leadership positions at federal health agencies -- a "daunting task" that helps explain why five posts are vacant 14 months after President Bush's election, the Washington Times reports. With the resignation of CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan last week, that agency and the FDA, NIH and HRSA all lack directors, while the surgeon general's office is also empty since David Satcher's term ended Feb. 13. According to a congressional source, the interest in bioterrorism expertise has led administration officials to the military, where several medical professionals have "bioterrorism backgrounds." The five positions, however, are also "lightening rods for sexuality and family life issues" such as birth control and stem cell research. As a result, a Capitol Hill source said, officials have faced the difficult job of finding "someone who knows the ins and outs of anthrax and abstinence education and is a Nobel Prize winner." Robert Rector, welfare analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said that as issues such as abstinence education are "high personal priorities" for Bush, it is important that the jobs are filled with "someone ... who is strongly committed to the president's agenda ... particularly at the CDC." But Dr. Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said the unfilled positions are "causing consternation" among public health officials, calling the delay "political" and adding, "[I]f they give me one week, I will find four or five candidates for each of these positions" (Wetzstein, Washington Times, 2/28).

Vacancies Should Be 'Quickly' Filled, Editorial Says
The administration should make it a "priority" to fill the empty slots with "top-notch people," especially since "political deadlocks" are responsible for the months-long delay in filling the NIH and FDA vacancies, the Boston Globe writes in an editorial. Although Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was considered to be the "consensus candidate" among "health specialists" to head NIH, he was opposed by conservatives for his support of research involving tissue from aborted fetuses. If such a position disqualifies all candidates, the Globe says, Bush "could end up with a depleted pool of contenders." Politics has also played a role in filling the FDA director position, with opposition from Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the pharmaceutical industry sinking the nominations of biotechnology executive Michael Astrue and Vanderbilt University drug safety specialist Alistair Wood, respectively. The Globe also notes that the CDC plays the largest "front-line" role in confronting bioterrorism, concluding, "Just as it would be irresponsible for the administration to go into war without a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it would be foolhardy not to fill the CDC post as quickly as possible" (Boston Globe, 2/28).