Lest the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alters its position on the labeling of genetically modified salmon products, one Alaskan senator and one presidential hopeful may hold up the voting process for the agency’s new commissioner.
Senator Lisa Murkowski and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders have threatened to block President Barack Obama’s nominee for the FDA commissioner position, Califf, who garnered support from the Senate panel on Tuesday, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Murkowski has optioned to hold up the vote unless the agency makes assurances that it will write new rules for the labeling of GM salmon, products that could harm Alaska’s wild salmon industry, the Republican official has claimed.
Angered by the lack of warning that she received from the agency before it approved the sale of GM salmon in November – just two days following Califf’s confirmation hearing – Murkowski remarked on the FDA’s failure to win support from her regarding its decisions.
"If they are trying to get my support, they sure fumbled that ball," Murkowski said after the vote.
Sanders, who was not present at the hearing, would have also opposed the nomination as well, according to his campaign office. “The country needs an FDA commissioner who will stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and that Califf is ‘not that person,’” reported the AP.
Califf, who is now the No. 2 official for the FDA, was a prominent cardiologist and medical researcher at Duke University for more than 30 years.
