House Republicans threaten FDA with subpoena over alleged inadequate lab safety oversight

Re­pub­li­cans in the House Com­mit­tee on En­er­gy and Com­merce are threat­en­ing to sub­poe­na FDA Com­mis­sion­er Rob Califf if the agency doesn’t pro­duce in­for­ma­tion on its lab safe­ty op­er­a­tions, cit­ing con­cerns that the agency isn’t meet­ing fed­er­al safe­ty re­quire­ments.

In a sev­en-page let­ter ad­dressed to Califf on Wednes­day, com­mit­tee chair Cathy Mc­Mor­ris Rodgers (WA), Mor­gan Grif­fith (VA) and Brett Guthrie (KY) opine that the FDA didn’t ad­e­quate­ly re­spond to an ear­li­er let­ter with con­cerns that the agency is ne­glect­ing lab safe­ty. Among their con­cerns, the law­mak­ers are wor­ried that the agency is weak­en­ing its Of­fice of Lab Safe­ty (OLS) and not con­duct­ing enough in­spec­tions.

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