Reinstatement of Staff at FDA Center for Tobacco Products Is a Positive Step for Public Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Administration on Friday informed a federal court that, over the past year, it has rescinded all remaining reduction-in-force notices affecting staff at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. These actions have resulted in the reinstatement of 229 staff responsible for a variety of essential functions, including product application reviews, enforcement and public education campaigns.

The reinstatement of staff at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products is a positive step for public health and helps ensure the Center has the staff needed to carry out its essential work in accordance with federal law. This includes stepping up enforcement against the many illegal products, especially e-cigarettes, now on the market, and conducting evidence-based reviews of marketing applications for new tobacco products. The FDA must sustain and enhance these efforts in order to continue reducing youth use of tobacco products.

Building on these staff reinstatements at the Center for Tobacco Products, we urge the Administration to also reinstate staff at, and adequately fund, the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. For decades, the CDC has played a leading role in the nation’s efforts to address tobacco use, including providing critical support to state tobacco prevention and cessation programs and conducting highly effective public education campaigns warning the public about the risks of smoking.

The government’s legal filing was made in a lawsuit brought last year by a coalition of state attorneys general that resulted in a preliminary injunction halting mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including FDA and CDC. We applaud the attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia for their leadership in filing this lawsuit to protect critical public health programs. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids supported this lawsuit by filing two amicus briefs, joined by nine public health and medical organizations.

While the U.S. has made tremendous progress in reducing tobacco use, it remains the nation’s leading cause of preventable disease and death, killing nearly 500,000 Americans every year and costing over $241 billion in direct annual health care expenses. Smoking is a primary driver of chronic disease, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, COPD and diabetes. We cannot make further progress in protecting public health and combating chronic disease without continued investment in the public health infrastructure provided by the FDA and the CDC.