The Delicate Dance of Immersion and Insulation: The Politicization of the FDA Commissioner

Abstract

The Food and Drug Administration never has been and never will be completely insulated from politics; it exists and operates as an integral part of the federal government in Washington, DC, not in a vacuum. Nevertheless, the FDA Commissioner has become a more political entity since 1988, the year in which Congress made the position subject to Senate confirmation. Whether considered beneficial or adverse, this politicization of FDA deserves examination—from the two decades preceding the 1988 Act, to the motivation behind the Act, to the Act itself, and through the present. This paper will endeavor to conduct such an examination.