"only 9 people"
"big government"
You see the issue here, right? How is federal understaffing a "big government" issue? If anything it's the result of lean "run it like a business" small government ideology.
Like the decimation of the IRS in recent years, it's intentional. The most powerful people prop up the politicians who'll do their bidding and make sure they get away with murder. Whether it's regulation skirting, monopolizing, tax evasion, etc.
If all the car dealerships in NYC gave Eric Adams millions in campaign cash and then he spent his first year as mayor slashing tires on all the city buses, the correct conclusion is not "guess that shows city government doesn't work."
The 9 people isn't the reason it's big government, the fact that these companies can't bring their products to the market without inspection by the federal government is. The fact that there's only 9 people doing this job goes to show you how grossly inefficient the government is, drastically exacerbating this problem.
Businesses are efficient (relatively speaking). When that one factory shut down creating a shortage, I'm sure there were dozens able to jump in and take its place within days. However the bottleneck will be the government approval/inspection which will take weeks to months.
Hell this has become a congressional issue where they're introducing legislation to increase funding for these inspectors to hire additional staff. How long do you think it'll take to get legislation introduced, passed, employees hired and trained by the government?
To me that's something I'd postulate taking months. Where as a private company could do it in days to weeks.
The lean methodology for the government is likely more focused on budgetary than regulatory (and let's be honest the government is not lean what so freaking ever when it comes to the budget. It's more like slashing funding for one project so you can give it to the dudes bribing you)
