I Know It Seems Impossible to Remember, But There Is Actually a Reason We Had an FDA

Turns out that, besides discussing battle operations on Signal and failing to secure your handbag here in the Homeland, the Katzenjammer Kabinet is pretty awful in its workaday operations, too. From Reuters:

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending a quality control program for testing of fluid milk and other dairy products due to reduced capacity in its food safety and nutrition division, according to an internal email seen by Reuters. The suspension is another disruption to the nation's food safety programs after the termination and departure of 20,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, as part of President Donald Trump's effort to shrink the federal workforce.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products. Effective Monday, the agency suspended its proficiency testing program for Grade "A" raw milk and finished products, according to the email sent in the morning from the FDA's Division of Dairy Safety and addressed to "Network Laboratories."

I know it's futile here in the New American Golden Age to mention it but there's a reason we had an FDA. When President Theodore Roosevelt proposed the new agency to replace the patchwork of federal and local health ordinances, the condition of the country's milk supply was of particular concern. It was adulterated with all kinds of dubious additives, including formaldehyde and plaster of Paris to enhance its whiteness. By 1924, the U.S. Public Health Service introduced the Standard Milk Ordinance, which began the process of pasteurization for all milk sold in the United States.

And, of course, the current Secretary of Health and Human Services is quite the enthusiast for raw milk, so I don't expect him to fight these particular budget cuts very ferociously. After all, he wasn't hired for his independence of thought. He was hired for its lunacy. There's a difference.