Chief of FDA to face critics
House panel likely to query staff bonuses
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration tripled the amount of bonuses to senior staffers while Lester Crawford led the agency as acting commissioner.
That issue is expected to come up today, along with a new round of criticism, if Crawford testifies, as scheduled, before the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee.
Crawford, acting FDA commissioner from March 2004 until a Senate confirmation vote this month, approved $511,025 in cash bonuses for career senior executive service employees in 2004. That compares with $161,994 in cash bonuses approved in 2003 for the same type of employees by Mark B. McClellan, Crawford's predecessor.
Neither the FDA nor the Department of Health and Human Services responded to e-mail requests for comment yesterday.
Despite winning the Senate confirmation vote by 78 to 16, Crawford is expected to face criticism during this afternoon's hearing in the House. Crawford skipped a key session with the same subcommittee before it approved a $1.5 billion FDA budget for fiscal year 2006, doubling the annual budget for staff that review drug advertising targeted at consumers and raising the agency's budget by $5 million to bolster drug safety.
The House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee declared 5 percent of Crawford's administrative office budget off-limits until he testified.
That testimony, scheduled for this afternoon, is expected to give FDA critics one more opportunity to question Crawford's management of the agency. Issues include drug safety controversies, travel privileges, and rewarding select FDA staffers with cash bonuses up to $17,220.
Representative Maurice Hinchey, Democrat of New York, ''and his colleagues will use this hearing as an opportunity to aggressively question the FDA commissioner on the record regarding the various problems the agency is experiencing," said Jeff Lieberson, a spokesman for Hinchey.
Travel and bonuses figures were provided to the subcommittee by the FDA to answer questions raised by US Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, according to a transcript of the House Appropriations subcommittee hearings.
DeLauro asked for details on bonuses given to certain FDA employees, including those who reported directly to the commissioner. And she asked for travel histories -- including the purpose of the trip, location visited, and cost of travel -- for employees who answer directly to the FDA commissioner.
The travel expenses provided by the FDA ranged from $12 for a center director to attend a conference in Baltimore, to $16,631.32 for an acting deputy commissioner to give speeches in a number of European nations.
Crawford had faced scrutiny that slowed his nomination vote. The inquiry did not confirm anonymous allegations he was having an affair with a female FDA staffer and failed to act appropriately when that employee misused a credit card provided for travel expenses. The investigation by the Office of Inspector General found Crawford and the woman gave conflicting stories when asked whether he coached her on how to complete a key application needed to become a senior executive service employee.
DeLauro's office declined to comment yesterday. But in a statement issued after Crawford's Senate confirmation vote, DeLauro promised to hold Crawford accountable for ''serious scientific and management challenges facing FDA."
Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com. 