4 ms·

Speaking of bureaucratic bloat... the FDA has 4,659 people working in "regulatory affairs" and 956 working in "family smoking prevention." That is in addition

Speaking of bureaucratic bloat... the FDA has 4,659 people working in "regulatory affairs" and 956 working in "family smoking prevention." That is in addition to the other 11,000 civilian employees and 1,100 military employees. Apparently the FDA spends 8.5 million hours per year on "regulatory affairs." Boy I'd like to see that hourly breakdown.

bumby 5y ago
This is to my point. There are a ton of single issues that some group is going to say needs to be a higher priority. I was interested so I looked up the FDA's regulatory affairs [1], which "conducts sample analyses of regulated products and reviews imported products offered for entry into the United States" This seems pretty inline with their core mission so I'm not surprised they spend a lot of time on it. [1]https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regulatory-affairs https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regula...
kube-system 5y ago
Those are parts of their core purpose, of course they spend a lot of resources on them. They're a regulatory organization that regulates tobacco products. Redacting documents, by contrast, is not a core mission of theirs.
avs733 5y ago
There was another comment about the already released documents being taken wildly out of context and flat out lied about by anti-vaccine idiots. This is the same type of thing honestly. The presumption that you have that you know what these numbers mean, entirely out of any meaningful context. Let me sincerely ask, when you wrote this what did you assume someone in regulatory affairs at FDA did? What motivated you to think that number was too large? Here is their website. Is this what you thought they did? https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regulatory-affairs https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regula...
- parkingrift 5y ago
  > Let me sincerely ask, when you wrote this what did you assume someone in regulatory affairs at FDA did? I assume it’s like most government jobs. 70% waste.
  - bumby 5y ago
    Is this actually based on something or just venting? Having worked on both public and private sides, I anecdotally saw roughly equal amounts of waste.
    - avs733 5y ago
      simpler approach here is they are unwilling or unable to find a useful basis for the argument. They haven't considered what these people do, just assumed there are to many of them without considering it.
elliekelly 5y ago
They’re a regulatory agency. If they weren’t dedicating a large amount of time to regulatory affairs it would be a problem.

bumby 5y ago

This is to my point. There are a ton of single issues that some group is going to say needs to be a higher priority. I was interested so I looked up the FDA's regulatory affairs [1], which "conducts sample analyses of regulated products and reviews imported products offered for entry into the United States" This seems pretty inline with their core mission so I'm not surprised they spend a lot of time on it. [1]https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regulatory-affairs https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regula...

kube-system 5y ago

Those are parts of their core purpose, of course they spend a lot of resources on them. They're a regulatory organization that regulates tobacco products. Redacting documents, by contrast, is not a core mission of theirs.

avs733 5y ago

There was another comment about the already released documents being taken wildly out of context and flat out lied about by anti-vaccine idiots. This is the same type of thing honestly. The presumption that you have that you know what these numbers mean, entirely out of any meaningful context. Let me sincerely ask, when you wrote this what did you assume someone in regulatory affairs at FDA did? What motivated you to think that number was too large? Here is their website. Is this what you thought they did? https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regulatory-affairs https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/office-regula...

parkingrift 5y ago
> Let me sincerely ask, when you wrote this what did you assume someone in regulatory affairs at FDA did? I assume it’s like most government jobs. 70% waste.
- bumby 5y ago
  Is this actually based on something or just venting? Having worked on both public and private sides, I anecdotally saw roughly equal amounts of waste.
  - avs733 5y ago
    simpler approach here is they are unwilling or unable to find a useful basis for the argument. They haven't considered what these people do, just assumed there are to many of them without considering it.

elliekelly 5y ago

They’re a regulatory agency. If they weren’t dedicating a large amount of time to regulatory affairs it would be a problem.