Sens. Murray, Rodham Clinton Place Hold On Bush Nomination Of Von Eschenbach For FDA Commissioner Over Plan B Application

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 20 Mar 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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President Bush on Wednesday nominated acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to permanently head the agency, the Los Angeles Times reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, 3/16). Shortly after the nomination was announced, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) announced in a statement that they will place a hold on his confirmation vote in the Senate because of FDA's delay of a decision on Barr Laboratories' application for nonprescription sales of the emergency contraceptive Plan B -- which can prevent pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse -- for girls and women ages 17 and older (Schuler, CQ Today, 3/15). Von Eschenbach while appearing before the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee last month reaffirmed that science, not politics, would play a role in the agency's decision on Barr's application. He said the delay in addressing the application is related to the potential "enormous complexity" of about 10,000 comments submitted to the agency during a 60-day comment period former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford opened last year (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/17). Von Eschenbach currently also heads the National Cancer Institute, but White House spokesperson Erin Healy said he will relinquish that post (Rockoff, Baltimore Sun, 3/16).

Murray, Rodham Clinton's Hold; Reaction
Murray and Rodham Clinton in June 2005 blocked a full Senate vote on Crawford's nomination because of the agency's delay in addressing Barr's application. The senators in July 2005 agreed to lift the hold after HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in a letter to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said that FDA would act on the application by Sept. 1, 2005 (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/1/05). According to the Washington Post, Murray and Rodham Clinton said they were "double-crossed" by Leavitt's letter (Kaufman, Washington Post, 3/16). Murray at a November 2005 hearing "all but called ... Leavitt a liar," the New York Times reports. Leavitt responded that "FDA did act" on the application in August 2005 when Crawford announced a further delay to examine regulatory issues raised by the application. "This time around they are not going to get their nomination until a decision has been made," Murray said (Harris, New York Times, 3/16). She also said, "You cross somebody and lose their trust, it becomes very difficult to do things the second time around" (Chayes, Chicago Tribune, 3/16). Enzi spokesperson Craig Orfield said that the senator "strongly encouraged the [Bush] administration to resolve the issue [of Barr's application] before moving forward to nominate" von Eschenbach, adding, "It is obviously going to be more difficult to move the nomination if that issue is not resolved" (Los Angeles Times, 3/16). Healy said, "It's critically important that the FDA have a full-time commissioner," adding that von Eschenbach "has the experience and qualifications to serve in this position" (McAuliff, New York Daily News, 3/16).

NPR's "Morning Edition" on Thursday reported on von Eschenbach's nomination and Plan B. The segment includes comments from Margaret Foti, CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research; Kirsten Moore, president of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project; and Murray (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 3/16). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.