Trump's FDA Nominee Has Never Worked at the FDA. None of Her Last Three Predecessors Got the Job the Way She's Getting It.

President Trump has nominated Dr. Heidi Overton, currently the deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, to run the FDA -- the agency that regulates roughly a fifth of everything Americans spend money on: prescription drugs, medical devices, vaccines, tobacco, most of the food supply, and cosmetics. Overton holds an MD and a PhD, trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins, and is board-certified in a different specialty, public health and preventive medicine. She has never worked at the FDA in any capacity, has no drug or device industry experience, and her career for the past five years has run almost entirely through partisan political roles -- a Trump-aligned think tank, then the White House. Her three immediate predecessors got there three different ways, but each brought something she hasn't: Robert Califf had already worked inside the FDA as Deputy Commissioner; Stephen Hahn ran the medical program at one of the country's leading cancer centers; Marty Makary was an actively practicing surgeon holding a named chair and a divisional leadership post at Johns Hopkins. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate committee that will hold her confirmation hearing, has already said publicly that her "lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization" and separately called her role in a recent vaccine executive order "almost disqualifying." With Republicans able to lose only three votes and Democrats unified against her, his is potentially the deciding voice.