HHS to Furlough Most Staff in Shutdown
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would furlough 62% of its staff if the federal government shuts down, officials said. Agencies focusing mostly on administrative and regulatory work, such as the FDA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), would send nearly all of their staffs home. On the other hand, units that provide direct clinical services, such as the Indian Health Service, would retain most personnel, according to a guidance posted on HHS's website. Funding for the federal government for fiscal 2011 runs out just after midnight on Friday and negotiations appeared to be at a standstill. Democrats are saying they've gucci outlet agreed with Republicans on much to cut from federal spending for the remainder of the year, and that the only thing blocking a deal is the GOP's insistence to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. Republicans, meanwhile, have countered that there is no such agreement on a dollar figure. Obama administration officials said two types of federally funded activities will not be affected by the government shutdown: those that receive funding from sources other than the federal government, such as user fees; and those that are necessary to protect life or property, such as law enforcement as well as clinical health services. With the possiblity of a shut-down just hours away, federal agencies are firming up their plans, and it seems governmental stand-still would have a big impact the nation's government-funded public health, research, and medicine programs. FDA According to an FDA spokeswoman, only 2,000 employees out of 13,000 would continue their work at the agency in the event of a government shutdown. About half of those work for the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, many of which are out in the field inspecting food, drug, and medical facilities. Medical device and drug reviewers would be furloughed, meaning applications for new drugs and devices would collect dust during a shutdown. Although FDA operations are funded in part with user fees from drug and device companies, those funds have already been exhausted because it's so late in the year, an FDA spokeswoman told MedPage Today. She said the fiscal 2011 appropriations are therefore crucial for uninterrupted review of medical products, The deadlines for when FDA is expected to hand down approval decisions on drugs and devices, known as PDUFA dates, will all be adjusted if the government shuts down. For example, if the government is shut down for five days, drug and device companies can expect to wait at least an additional five days longer beyond the currently scheduled PDUFA date, the spokeswoman said. The one agency at the FDA that is funded entirely through user fees -- the Center for Tobacco Products -- will run at full-speed and not furlough a single employee, the spokeswoman said. In addition, if the government shuts down, there will be no advisory committee meetings. A meeting scheduled for next week, on everolimus tablets (Afinitor) to treat advanced gastrointestinal, lung, or pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, would be cancelled. CDC The vast majority of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be furloughed if the government ceased operations, said an HHS spokesman. Because the CDC tracks new public health threats such as disease outbreaks, the worst-case scenario during a shutdown would be a massive outbreak of a food-borne illness or other communicable disease. The CDC's emergency operation center -- a command center for monitoring and coordinating CDC's emergency response to public health threats in the United States and abroad -- will remain open. The center is currently working on responses to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But responses may be delayed, the spokesman said. "If a state were to call us and say 'We need help,' we may not be able to respond quickly," the spokesman said. While emergency workers will continue their jobs, the staff who work to "get people out the door," by booking travel and facilitating meetings, won't be working. "This would prevent us from responding as quickly as we'd like," the spokesman said. In addition, the CDC's ability to detect an outbreak could be jeapordized, he said. "We have a lot of disease surveillance networks. If those are scaled back to just the staff that monitor those networks, it could conceivably lead to us not being able to detect an outbreak as quickly as we'd like to. We simply won't have the manpower we have right now," the HHS spokesman said. Investigations of an ongoing disease outbreaks will continue, and organisms in labs will be looked after. Localities that receive CDC grant money for public health or surveillance research could continue their research, but any new studies, experiments, or surveys scheduled to start would be cancelled. In the event of a shutdown, the CDC won't publish any surveys, studies, or reports, such as its closely watched Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC would continue to implement global health programs abroad, such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which were funded through prior-year appropriations.