A Food and Drug Administration official says a Trump Administration policy on hiring foreign scientists is affecting the agency's ability to attract needed talent, according to Stat News.
It adds that FDA implemented a policy about a year ago that limits it to offering employment to individuals who have lived in the US for three of the past five years. "[The policy] definitely has created an additional challenge, I think, for us," says Melanie Keller, the acting associate commissioner for scientific and clinical recruitment at FDA, according Stat News, noting that "the US just doesn't graduate the number that we need to fill our vacancies."
Stat News adds that FDA has had trouble filling posts and retaining employees, with some spots taking more than a year to fill and with some employees wooed away by higher salaries offered elsewhere.
However, Stat News adds that an FDA spokesperson, Tara Rabin, later said the policy isn't a "challenge" but "something it needs to "navigate … to attract our talent."