Wilson Bryan: Return-to-office mandate will weaken FDA, impact hiring

The Trump Administration’s return-to-office mandate for federal employees, which also limits the hiring of remote workers, will restrict the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) talent pool and weaken the agency, according to Wilson Bryan, who served as the director of FDA’s Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies from 2016 until his retirement from the agency in 2023.

Bryan spoke to Focus about the implications of the return-to-office order, which is expected to impact the agency’s ability to hire and retain talent, especially in highly-specialized fields, such as cell and gene therapies, where FDA has long struggled with staffing issues.

FDA employees were told in early February they would need to start working from the agency headquarters beginning 17 March, while managers were told to return to the office five days a week if they live within 50 miles of their headquarters or duty stations starting 28 February. (RELATED: This Week: Federal workforce cut, Trump buyout offer delayed, and FDA’s RTO, Regulatory Focus 7 February 2025)

Bryan, who now works as an independent consultant, said that FDA that it was “always difficult” to hire people and to get them in the door at FDA. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency could typically only hire fully remote workers in “extremely rare situations,” such as when candidates had worked at FDA for 20 years, held the position of branch chief, and then chose to return to the agency.

When COVID-19 emerged, FDA was permitted to recruit staff remotely, which greatly enhanced its ability to attract top talent. “That was a huge boon as far as being able to get the best people to come to FDA,” said Bryan.

The agency was able to hire people who were “tired of academics and tired of applying for grants and thought that work in the regulatory space would be good.” He added that being able to hire workers for remote work “really opened up the door, and then we got applications from great people.”

Bryan mentioned that the science behind cell and gene therapy is continuously evolving, highlighting the importance of having knowledgeable staff at the agency. “The science is always changing so fast,” with the emergence of new vectors, or new nanoparticles, he said, prompting the “need to get scientists in the people in that office and regulatory agencies.”

He said that the return-to-work mandate will cut down on the overall quality of the new hires. “When you hire for a position, you want as many applicants as possible. It is to your advantage to have people from all over the country and you get to choose.” The inability to recruit individuals for remote work ultimately affects the talent you are able to attract, Bryan said.

Bryan said it is difficult to quantify the impact this change will have on FDA’s performance. “It doesn’t show up in any statistic,” he said, adding that products are still approved, and the industry is still able to have meetings with the agency. However, “You just have an agency that is not as sharp. You can turn down some good applicants because they live somewhere else, and it weakens FDA,” Bryan said.

When asked whether individuals hired for remote positions will be allowed to continue working remotely, Bryan said “it is not clear if those people will lose their jobs,” though they may be given an ultimatum to show up to the office. “Yet this is a change in the conditions of your work, so there will be a union challenge to that. But how it plays out I do not know,” he added.

The return-to-work order also presents logistical challenges for the agency, as its White Oak campus is not adequately equipped to accommodate the current number of employees who are required to return to the office, said Eva Temkin, a partner at Arnold & Porter and former FDA official. Temkin served in various roles at FDA from 2013 to 2021, including associate chief counsel and acting deputy directory, policy staff, in the Office of Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).

She highlighted several logistical challenges related to the return-to-work mandate, including insufficient office and parking space at FDA’s headquarters in White Oak to accommodate the influx of remote workers.

Temkin said that prior to COVID-19, there was a significant amount of office sharing due to insufficient office space and a lack of parking to accommodate everyone. The problem has now been compounded with the return-to-office mandate. She said that productivity is lost when individuals are “sitting two to three to an office in very close quarters” or idling in the parking lot waiting for someone to leave so they can get a spot.

Temkin further noted that, given the recent turmoil at FDA, the lack of flexibility is not the primary concern on peoples’ minds at the moment.

Wilson Bryan: Return-to-office mandate will weaken FDA, impact hiring

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