That’s the assesment of Democratic leadership in the House Energy and Commerce Committee after the Food and Drug Administration spent $8 million, or 29 percent, more than last year on employee bonuses. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.), a committee member who’s taken the lead in FDA oversight, said that these bonuses aren’t going "to the men and women in the field who FDA struggles to retain."

This is a really interesting story (it was picked up by the Washington Post from Bloomberg News). But the piece doesn’t make clear if the bonuses in the notoriously cash-strapped agency are going to Bush political appointees with a foot out the door– which would be truly  egregious. They could instead be going to  career senior officials ostensibly trying to get the FDA back on track– which would be more of a unwise use of scarce resources than a scandal.-MB

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