Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a recent letter asked FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to clarify that agency employees can testify before Congress, CQ HealthBeat reports. In the letter, Grassley warned von Eschenbach that "interfering with a congressional inquiry is against the law" and punishable by fines or as many as five years in prison and that he could lose his salary. Grassley sent the letter in response to comments attributed to von Eschenbach last month in the Newark Star-Ledger. According to the Star-Ledger, von Eschenbach on Feb. 21 in reference to FDA whistleblowers said, "To go outside the process is destructive, not constructive. ... They aren't speaking in the best interest of the FDA. ... I expect people to adhere to that because that's the way to do business. Otherwise, it's chaos." Grassley also cited previous reports that von Eschenbach told employees not to express disagreements with FDA officials publicly or risk their jobs. According to Grassley, "several individuals, both inside and outside of FDA," have raised concerns that the statements from von Eschenbach "are being interpreted to prohibit FDA employees from talking to Congress and threaten FDA employees who choose not to abide by your decree." Grassley wrote, "The danger is that FDA employees interpret this to mean they can't talk with Congress if they want to about problems inside the agency, and, as a result, those problems are less likely to see the light of day and be fixed." FDA officials were unavailable for comment on the letter (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 3/13).

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