The progressive agenda depends on the FDA and CDC

The progressive agenda depends on the FDA and CDC

Reforming the agencies is a first step toward restoring trust in government

By Guian McKee

Read the full article at The Hill

The party of government must show that it can govern. Over the first eight months of his presidency, Joe Biden has launched an expansive agenda that outlines a progressive vision of a more activist federal government. Recently, though, the Biden administration’s on-the-job performance has reinforced doubts about the government's ability to deliver on such ambitious promises.

Biden and his team must focus on improving how the government actually functions if they hope to convince a skeptical public to place its trust in the progressive dream.

Following the messaging debacle of the Pfizer booster decision, the administration should start with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Read the full article at The Hill

Guian McKee headshot

Guian McKee

Guian McKee is an associate professor in presidential studies at the Miller Center. He received a Ph.D. in American history at the University of California, Berkeley, in May 2002, and is the author of The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia (University of Chicago Press, 2008). At the Miller Center, McKee works extensively with the Presidential Recordings Program. His research focuses on how federal policy, especially in the executive branch, plays out at the local level in American communities. He has written extensively about urban policy, including a book that explored the connections between local and federal economic, urban renewal, and antipoverty policies in Philadelphia between the 1950s and the 1980s.