The FDA’s rebuilding effort is running into a new challenge

Margaret is a Washington correspondent covering the Food and Drug Administration and other federal health agencies. Reach her on Signal at margaretmanto.61.

WASHINGTON — To hear Food and Drug Administration leaders tell it, everything is going swimmingly — a far cry from the dark days of April 2025, when Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service took a chainsaw to the agency, slashing 3,500 workers and triggering a broader staff exodus.

Just over a year later, Musk is out and hiring is in. The FDA is now looking to add more than 2,000 workers .

“We’re very actively hiring,” Karim Mikhail, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research , told drug manufacturers at a conference Monday. On social media, the agency trumpets its new employees with group photos, declaring “Welcome to FDA!’’