SEPT. 26–ROCKVILLE, MD–President Bush has nominated Mark McClellan to be the new FDA commissioner, a post that has been vacant for nearly two years because of a political standoff over who should fill the slot.

McClellan, a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers and generally regarded as the nation’s top health policy adviser, is a physician and an economist.

McClellan’s nomination, announced in the White House Oval Office yesterday, so far has the blessing of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, who is chairman of the committee that will oversee his confirmation to the post by the Senate.

“Dr. McClellan has impressive credentials both as a physician and as an economist, and I look forward to learning more about his views on issues critical to the FDA,” Kennedy say.

A standoff between Bush and Kennedy has left the agency without a commissioner since the president took office. McClellan has not worked in any FDA-regulated industry, but has been a professor at Stanford University and deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department under President Clinton.

One problem likely to plague McClellan, 39, is that he has never managed a large staff. The FDA has more than 10,000 employees in offices spread across the country.

Questions about McClellan’s management skills are likely to come up during his confirmation hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The hearing is to be scheduled as soon as possible