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FDA needs permanent leadership, Leavitt says
Associated Press
Published January 19, 2005
WASHINGTON - Senators on Tuesday pressed Health and Human Services nominee Mike Leavitt for a permanent commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, which has been without one for nearly a year amid rising concerns about the safety of drugs on the market.
Describing the FDA as an "agency in crisis," Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., asked the former Utah governor at a confirmation hearing on his nomination whether someone would be named by the end of January.
"I share with you the view that the agency needs permanent leadership," Leavitt replied during the two-hour hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.
Pressed further on the point, Leavitt said the White House will make the decision. He added, "I will do all I can to see that it occurs, and it's my sense that it will happen soon."
The FDA has been without a commissioner since March 2004, when the Senate confirmed then-director Mark McClellan to oversee the agency that runs the Medicaid and Medicare programs.
If confirmed, Leavitt, 53, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, would take over the $550-billion, 66,000-employee Health and Human Services Department, which includes the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.
On other topics, Leavitt said:
Rolling out a new Medicare prescription drug program will be the "main event" at HHS this year. The benefit was enacted to help seniors cope with rising drug costs and begins next year.
"There will inevitably be flaws, but we will not fail," he said.
Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health care to the poor, is a "vital program" that isn't meeting its potential. He said states need more flexibility to decide how to structure the program because rising costs are eating away at other areas of their budgets.
Hearings on Leavitt's nomination continue today before the Senate Finance Committee.
[Last modified January 19, 2005, 00:33:17]
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