FDA staff return to crowded offices, broken equipment and missing chairs

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FDA staff return to crowded offices, broken equipment and missing chairs

2025-03-18 10:30 Last Updated At：10:41

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of employees returned to the Food and Drug Administration's headquarters Monday to find overflowing parking lots, long security lines and makeshift office spaces without chairs and other basic supplies.

The FDA is the latest agency scrambling to meet the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate, part of a flurry of actions — including firings and buyouts — intended to radically shrink the federal workforce. Monday was the first day that all rank-and-file FDA staffers were required to report to offices, including the agency’s 130-acre campus just outside Washington.

The Associated Press spoke with more than a half-dozen FDA staffers who described long lines to park and clear security, followed by hours of hunting for space and supplies in offices that were not designed to accommodate the agency’s full workforce. The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

One staffer described “chaos and lost work hours" for commuting, security lines and shuffled office space.

About half the FDA’s 20,000 scientists, attorneys, inspectors and support staff report to the agency’s main campus in White Oak, Maryland, which until the late 1990s was a naval weapons testing facility.

While many agencies switched to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA began embracing the practice a decade earlier. Most employees had the option to work from home at least two days a week — flexibility that was seen as a competitive perk for recruiting highly trained experts who can often earn more working in industry.

By 7:30 a.m., many on-campus parking lots were full, with cars parked along side streets, according to employees. Some workers reported waiting up to one hour to clear security checkpoints, and photos viewed by the AP showed lines of employees winding out doorways, along sidewalks and around corners.

Once inside, employees confronted broken desks, missing chairs and locked offices for which they didn’t have keys.

“All of the staff is definitely bending over backwards to make an impossible situation work and get their work done,” said one employee.

Some employees were left to scour the campus for chairs and other essentials.

“People are looting chairs from conference rooms and other buildings,” a staffer said. “We have no supplies. People are hunting around all of the buildings on campus for pads of paper and other basics.”

When employees did get situated, many shared cramped spaces with people from different divisions and teams, making it difficult to hold calls and meetings. Photos shared with the AP show folding chairs and tables setup in hallways and lobbies.

An FDA spokesman said in an email Monday the agency “is continuing its return-to-office activities to ensure staff remain able to conduct their important public health work.”

All the employees told the AP that they brought their own drinking water Monday. That’s due to a monthslong issue involving Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, which was detected at several FDA buildings. The General Service Administration, which oversees federal buildings, has been working on the issue since last summer.

FDA staff received an email earlier this month that all water is safe to drink, but it did not detail the latest testing results or corrective actions taken.

Anthony Lee, who represents the local chapter of the federal union for FDA employees, said the agency has not granted the group's request for a meeting on the issue.

Asked about the water, one staffer said: “Honestly, none of us have tried it. After months of Legionella warnings, it’s not very inviting."

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Hungary’s parliament passes a law banning Pride events, in a new assault on LGBTQ+ rights

2025-03-18 22:39 Last Updated At：22:42

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a law banning Pride events and allowing authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attendees, continuing a crackdown by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s right-wing populist party on the country’s LBGTQ+ community.

The measure passed in a 136-27 vote. The law, supported by Orbán’s Fidesz party and their minority coalition partner the Christian Democrats, was pushed through parliament in an accelerated procedure after being submitted only a day earlier.

It amends Hungary’s law on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious “child protection” legislation, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.

Attending a prohibited event will carry fines up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546), which the state must forward to “child protection,” according to the text of the law. Authorities may use facial recognition tools to identify individuals attending a prohibited event.

As the vote was held in Hungary’s parliament in Budapest, opposition lawmakers ignited smoke bombs in the chamber, filling it with thick plumes of colorful smoke.

In a statement on Monday after lawmakers first submitted the bill, Budapest Pride organizers said the aim of the law was to “scapegoat” the LGBTQ+ community in order to silence voices critical of Orbán’s government.

“This is not child protection, this is fascism,” organizers wrote. “The government is trying to restrict peaceful protests with a critical voice by targeting a minority. Therefore, as a movement, we will fight for the freedom of all Hungarians to demonstrate!”

The new legislation is the latest step against LGBTQ+ people taken by Orbán, whose government has passed other laws that rights groups and other European politicians have decried as repressive against sexual minorities.

In 2022, the European Union’s executive commission filed a case with the EU’s highest court against Hungary’s 2021 child protection law. The European Commission argued that the law “discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Hungary’s government portrays itself as a champion of traditional family values and a defender of Christian civilization from what it calls “gender madness,” and argues that its policies are designed to protect children from “sexual propaganda.”

Hungary’s “child protection” law — aside from banning the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality in content available to minors, including in television, films, advertisements and literature — also prohibits the mention of LGBTQ+ issues in school education programs, and forbids the public depiction of “gender deviating from sex at birth.”

In a speech in February, Orbán hinted that his government would take steps to ban the Budapest Pride event, which attracts thousands and celebrates the history of the LGBTQ+ movement while asserting the equal rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Another Pride event in the southern Hungarian city of Pécs has also been held in recent years. Budapest Pride is marking its 30th anniversary this year, and is scheduled to take place on June 28.