FDA: When the Government Shuts Down

 

December 22, 2018 the United States government shutdown for the 21st time in United States history. This shutdown fell at the feet of Donald Trump and hadn’t been the only shutdown Trump called in his time as president. The most recent shutdown was Trump’s third time calling for a government shutdown and also the longest government shutdown in United States history. This shutdown would go on to tie the longest government shutdown at the hands of President Clinton from Dec 15, 1995- Jan 6, 1996 but later breaking it by 14 days when the government resumed on Jan 25, 2019. Trump’s reason for his decision to close the government was the issue of Border Security. Trump wanted the government to pass a bill, funding $5.7 Billion dollars for a southern border wall that his fellow partners refused to do. American citizens and significant federal agencies were affected immediately after. The Food and Drug Administration or the FDA was one of them.

 

The Food and Drug Administration hosts over 160 inspections a month dealing with foods that the average American consumes on a daily basis. The FDA is also the home to 17,000 employees whose job is to look out for the health of America. When the government shuts down, the FDA is immediately affected because important food inspections come to a halt and thousands of workers are furloughed, meaning temporarily laid off without pay. When tragic situations like this happen, the snowball effect plays a huge role in the economy. Many Americans are effected during the shutdown and the two main reasons are health and financial stability.

 

When the government closes, workers are furloughed, meaning again, they are not paid the whole time the government is closed. The FDA in this situation, who is already short on inspectors when the government is up and running, now has to make a drastic decision; to force workers to return to work without pay or let foods go uninspected. The FDA this year made that decision to make about 5,000 inspectors return to work without pay. Many of these workers have families that they provide for and these families cannot be provided for without income. American citizens don’t stop being hungry and bills don’t stop coming. The average FDA worker makes $30,000-$37,000 and some live paycheck to paycheck. With no income, it makes life really difficult for the middle-class citizens who already struggle when they are receiving income. Michelle Jones, a furloughed employee, was “worried about her bills being paid” when the government shutdown for over a month. It was hard to see someone of this country work so hard for one month of no pay possibly leading to a life hitting rock bottom. Food finds it hard to find houses and enter bellies if it can’t be bought. Lights have a real hard time staying on if they are not paid for. Heat can’t slip its way through vents when it is cold or if someone wants to take a long shower. Some citizens rely on public transportation but with no income to put towards that transportation, it could cause those same workers who were furloughed to be laid off permanently because they cannot get to work. The shutdown can cause an economic crisis for business and citizens simply because money is not being revolved to keep America going. It is estimated that the shutdown alone caused $5.7 Billion dollars in economic damages. With the financial state going under in America, the state of health for food consumers is also threatened.

 

Food is consumed all over America with each state receiving a significant amount of foods to distribute. When the government is shut down food is threatened because inspections stop. All food is not threatened because some foods are considered a low risk to the government and those foods are inspected in the United States Drug Administration agency. It is the foods that are considered a high risk to public health that the shutdown effects. Foods like, cheese, lettuce, cereal, and ice cream are considered high risk and are foods that American’s eat daily. These types of foods have a past in having outbreaks containing foodborne diseases like Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria; three deadly diseases that could kill a consumer if digested. The FDA has had incidents where they have had to recall foods because of these illnesses. As stated before, the FDA is already short on food inspectors. According to Middle Tennessee State’s Food and Culture Professor, Sandra Poirier, we have foods that are being imported from different countries adding to the foods that are already grown in the United States and there are just not enough people to effectively regulate this industry. So, when the government is open and running regularly, there are still foods that go uninspected because of the little number of inspectors. When the government is closed, those few inspectors the FDA do have don’t report to work making some foods not being inspected to the majority of the foods not being inspected. This is a huge problem in the United States because of the fact that 128,000 people are still hospitalized and 3,000 are still killed due to food-borne illnesses each year when the government is running. With this shutdown and the FDA is accountable for over 80% of the entire nation’s food supply in addition to overseas imports, these numbers could double, even triple because of the lack of inspections. The general health of the United States is threatened when the government 

makes a decision to close down, possibly leading to more foodborne outbreaks, deaths, and illnesses.

 

With the Food and Drug Administration agency being shut down for a record-breaking span, inspections of food decrease and increase the chance of food diseases being present in the food, causing more illnesses and deaths around the United States. Trump shut down the government focusing on illegal aliens entering the U.S from across the border but didn’t focus on the hard-working citizens of the United States who would be affected by it. The United States already is home to several deaths from food diseases across the nation. Shutting down the government, causing the FDA to be directly affected, makes this drastic food problem worse. Diseased filled food travels around the U.S and working citizens fight harder to maintain the middle or low-class life they have been accustomed to.