Top FDA food safety official's resignation letter warns firings will backfire on RFK Jr.
CBSN
The top official in charge of food safety and nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration resigned this week, protesting the dozens of scientists and other health officials now being let go across the agency's foods program.
In his resignation letter, James Jones warned that the "indiscriminate" cuts would add "one more roadblock" to the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda outlined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"They included staff with highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response and even 10 chemical safety staff hired to review potentially unsafe ingredients in our food supply," Jones wrote in his letter, which was dated Feb. 17.
More than 10% of the staff working for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were fired this month as part of the government-wide cuts to recently hired federal workers ordered by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, task force.
A small Alabama city placed its entire police force on administrative leave a day after a grand jury recommended the department be disbanded, saying it has "operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency."
One person died and another was injured when their helicopter crashed Thursday onto a frozen reservoir in southeast Idaho, authorities said.
Washington — Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in the past month challenging executive actions President Trump has taken since the start of his second term in office, and federal courts from coast to coast have started scrutinizing the president's plans.
Last fall, before being named the senior U.S. health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Trump administration would liberate Americans from the FDA's "aggressive suppression" of vitamins, dietary supplements, and other substances — ending the federal agency's "war on public health," as he put it.
Members of Elon Musk's private security detail have been deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service, granting them certain rights and protections of federal law enforcement agents, four sources familiar with the move confirmed to CBS News Thursday.
Delta Air Lines has revealed information about the crew on board a flight from Minneapolis that crashed and flipped upside down at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday.
The top official in charge of food safety and nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration resigned this week, protesting the dozens of scientists and other health officials now being let go across the agency's foods program.
Washington — Senate Republicans are forging ahead with a narrower budget proposal focused on defense, border security and energy priorities, despite President Trump's decision on Wednesday to endorse a competing plan put forward by House Republicans.
Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, revealed he has opened inquiries into public statements of Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, according to an internal memo to federal prosecutors in Washington.
Washington — A federal judge on Thursday allowed President Trump's efforts to shrink the federal workforce to continue moving forward while legal proceedings continue, declining a request from a group of labor unions to temporarily block his firing of federal employees and other actions targeting government workers.
The nation's largest airlines are looking to rescind new consumer protection rules for travelers with disabilities, arguing in court filings that the U.S. Department of Transportation had exceeded its authority in enacting them.
President Trump on Wednesday said he's considering using 20% of the savings from Elon Musk's cost-cutting task force, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to provide direct payments to taxpayers. But economists and policy experts across the political spectrum expressed skepticism about the feasibility of such a "DOGE dividend."