The FDA has announced plans to fill over 1,300 positions in the next few months as part of a multi-year hiring initiative.
As the agency moves to implement the FDA Amendments Act of 2007, a food protection plan and import safety action plan, it is looking to fill more than 600 positions and “backfill” 700 others in fiscal 2008.
OPM has granted the agency direct-hire authority, something the FDA said could help it put candidates on the job in as little as three weeks.
It said it biologists, chemists, medical officers, consumer safety officers, statisticians, nurse consultants, microbiologists, scientists, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, and veterinary medical officers and investigators are among the “critical need occupations” in demand.
"Each month there is a delay in bringing critical staff on board impairs the agency’s ability to fulfill” its mission, said COO John Dyer.
The National Treasury Employees Union called the plan a good start, but said it was not enough after years of under-funding to keep pace with public health needs.
The Senate has approved an amendment that would increase the agency’s budget by $71 million above the President’s request, which would put funding at $375 million more than fiscal 2008 levels.
