Bill Cassidy says new FDA chief lacks drug and medical device experience

EXCLUSIVE — Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said the new acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, does not have the prerequisite expertise to oversee the agency’s complex medical device and pharmaceutical oversight. President Donald Trump’s first commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, abruptly resigned from office on Tuesday afternoon following a series of controversies at the FDA, one of the largest regulatory agencies within the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services. Diamantas, previously director of the Human Foods Program at the FDA, was selected to be the acting director when Makary’s resignation was announced.Cassidy, who faces a tough Republican primary for reelection on Saturday, told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview that he hopes Diamantas is “only the acting director for a very short period of time.”

Diamantas was one of the leading architects of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a policy document governing federally funded food programs and the crowning jewel of the Make America Healthy Again movement. He has also overseen the agency’s “Operation Stork Speed,” meant to improve infant formula supply safety testing and food labeling reform.