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The Food and Drug Administration is pausing one of its milk testing programs that measures the quality of Grade “A” milk products, Reuters reported.

The suspension stems from a lack of “laboratory support” for the necessary testing and data processing, according to an internal email reviewed by the outlet. 

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, sits squarely inside President Donald Trump’s workforce reduction crosshairs. He has proposed a $40 billion funding cut to the department, and to date, its staff has been reduced by 20,000 employees, half of which were layoffs. 

However, a spokesperson for the department would not say that a lack of staff was the cause of the halt on milk testing, USA Today reported. 

The department claims that the laboratory in question, the Moffett Center Proficiency Testing Laboratory, was scheduled for decommissioning prior to staff cuts, and that its testing load will eventually be picked up by another facility, per Reuters.

Proficiency tests are not the only FDA quality measures for milk, but they help set national safety standards and play a role in labs getting accredited. This kind of due diligence is especially important for Grade A milk, the kind deemed fit for direct human consumption. Lower grades are used in other dairy products, such as cheese and butter.

The quality control interruption is not the first under Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy, who has long campaigned for fewer dairy regulations. 

Just weeks ago, his department suspended FDA efforts to better test dairy products for the ongoing bird flu and other pathogens. Federal workers addressing the bird flu in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA were also let go. 

The risk of avian flu exposure for humans is still low, but experts are monitoring the possibility of the virus reaching people via outbreaks in cattle herds. 

RFK drama, continued 

Kennedy lit multiple other fires this month with a slew of controversial comments, including a severe mischaracterization of people living with autism. He has repeatedly targeted the  population with his anti-vaccination beliefs.

“These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,” he said during an April 16 press conference.

Dani Bowman, a star in the hit Netflix show “Love on the Spectrum,” spoke out against the generalizations. 

“Autistic people have the same hopes, dreams and yes, the same awkward dating moments as anyone else,” Bowman told NewsNation. “I have a job. I do pay taxes. I’ve dated. I have a master’s degree.”

“Wanting to cure autism implies that our way of being is wrong and it isn’t,” she continued. “We don’t need to be fixed. We need to be supported.” 

Meanwhile, Kennedy continues to advocate for measles treatments not supported by the medical community. One child and one adult have died so far from the growing outbreak in Texas. 

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