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  • ‘Worst Job Ever’: Frustrated Top HSS Official Resigns, Writes Scathing Letter

    I'm offended as an American taxpayer

    03.14.2014 | News | |

    Health and Human Services (HHS) official David Wright resigned when he could no longer put up with the frustration of a “profoundly dysfunctional” federal bureaucracy, which he says left him “offended as an American taxpayer.”

    In his blistering resignation letter, David Wright, director of the Office of research Integrity (ORI)–which monitors and oversees potential research misconduct–wrote that being ORI Director has been the “very worst job I have ever had.” In describing his disgust with the most gratuitous part of his work that he finds the most frustrating Wright wrote, ”That part of the job is spent navigating the remarkably dysfunctional HHS bureaucracy to secure resources and, yes, get permission for ORI to serve the research community.  I knew coming into this job about the bureaucratic limitations of the federal government, but I had no idea how stifling it would be.”

    Wright also wrote in his resignation letter, obtained by Scienceinsider, that he plans to publish his official daily log in an attempt to further shed light on his former agency.

    Wright closed his letter saying “As for the rest, I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy — at least the part I’ve labored in — is so profoundly dysfunctional. I’m hardly the first person to have made that discovery, but I’m saddened by the fact that there is so little discussion, much less outrage, regarding the problem. To promote healthy and productive discussion, I intend to publish a version of the daily log I’ve kept as ORI Director in order to share my experience and observations with my colleagues in government and with members of the regulated research community.”


    Jerome Hudson

    Managing Editor

    Jerome Hudson has written for numerous national outlets, including The Hill, National Review, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was recognized as one of Florida’s emerging stars, having been included in the list “25 Under 30: Florida’s Rising Young Political Class.” Hudson is a Savannah, Ga. native who currently resides in Florida.

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