FATE OF VON ESCHENBACH'S NOMINATION UNCERTAIN

The Bush administration’s nomination of Andrew von Eschenbach to be the FDA commissioner faces an uncertain future that has less to do with the new Democratic Senate leadership than it does with members of the president’s own party.

Although the nomination passed out of committee Sept. 20, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and David Vitter (R-La.) have placed holds on von Eschenbach’s recommendation. Vitter’s hold, which he placed because he wants the FDA to allow drug importation, remains despite the fact that Congress passed a limited importation measure, a spokesman said. When DeMint announced his hold, he called on the agency to suspend sales of the contraceptive RU-486, pending an investigation into safety concerns. His office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he is still blocking the nomination.

While a spokesman for Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said filling the FDA commissioner position permanently was a priority, he could not predict the nomination’s future. A spokesman for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who will likely be the HELP chairman when Democrats take control in January, agreed.

Enzi would like to see the matter resolved as quickly as possible, the spokesman said, but he did not know if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) would allow time for it in the upcoming lame duck session of Congress. A spokesman for Frist said it was too early to plan the session’s agenda.

If the nomination is not handled before the Senate adjourns for the year, Enzi’s spokesman estimated that von Eschenbach would start at “about even odds” in Congress under Democratic control.

More trouble for the nomination may lie with frequent agency critic Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who will lose his seat as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee but remain the panel’s top Republican. Grassley is concerned about von Eschenbach’s ability to reform the agency and worries that he might be “too cozy with the drug industry,” the spokesman said.