The Food and Drug Administration’s first deputy commissioner for all human food programs, Jim Jones, has resigned due to the widespread layoffs at the agency the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has imposed.
“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Jones said in a resignation letter.
However, due to the Trump administration’s “disdain for the very people” shown through its layoffs, it would be “fruitless for me to continue in this role,” added Jones, who’s departure has been noted by multiple media sources.
He stated that 89 of the Human Foods Programs’ staff of 2,000 were laid off.
Jones was appointed in September 2023 as former Commissioner Robert Califf began a massive overhaul of the FDA’s human food safety programs, an initiative which spread to an agency-wide reorganization made effective in October 2024.
Califf, who stepped down in January, also was critical of the White House in a social media post.
“I am grieving for the many talented & dedicated FDA employees who have been mistreated & those left to do the work of protecting public health. Also for those who will be harmed by this among patients and the public. Those who are complicit in their silence will be judged harshly by history,” Califf said in a Blue Sky post on 16 February.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition was among the consumer health industry stakeholders to say they welcomed working with the FDA under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.
Following news of the DOGE’s layoffs at the FDA, the CRN noted that staff cuts should be weighed against the agency’s responsibilities.
“While staffing changes can occur during any presidential transition, it is critical that the FDA maintains the resources, expertise and staffing levels necessary to ensure effective dietary supplement oversight that undergirds consumer confidence in the supplement market,” said Jeff Ventura, the CRN’s communications vice president.
Jones Studied For Post In Agency’s External Review
Califf added the deputy commissioner post to lead in setting and advancing priorities for a unified Human Foods Program he proposed in January 2023.
Jones had been president of J. Jones Environmental consultancy after a 30-year career at the Environmental Protection Association when he participated in the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s review of the FDA’s food safety programs.
The panel’s recommendations published in December 2023 reached deep into the agency’s structural and operational norms to suggest other far-reaching changes. Within food safety, it made the former Office of Dietary Supplement Programs part of a broader office, a change the industry criticized.
In a March 2024 conference presentation, Jones offered a grim take on the agency’s fiscal year 2024 appropriation while touting the then-ongoing FDA reorganization as a benefit for the supplement industry.
“We think that this structure actually provides us the best path forward in terms of optimizing on our resources,” he said, noting that dietary supplement programs would “still be an office within the human foods program.”
In the FDA’s announcement of his appointment, Jones noted working on the panel and providing “operational recommendations for the FDA’s foods-related activities,” which include “carrying out important nutrition initiatives to improve the health of our country.”
“As a former pesticide regulator, I have a deep understanding of the unique needs of government programs involved in upholding safety of the US food supply, as well as the important role that the agriculture community and state partners play in this paradigm,” he said.
While with the EPA, Jones was a principal architect of the 2016 overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the first update statute in more than 40 years, and was responsible for decision-making related to the regulation of pesticides and commercial chemicals.
No word on whether Jones’ post will be filled has come from the FDA or the White House.
