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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today offered its strong support of a call from 20 members of the U.S. Senate that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “suspend any plans to consolidate” laboratories in the agency’s Office of Regulatory Affairs.

“These labs form the backbone of FDA’s work in ensuring the safety of food, medical equipment and cosmetics,” the senators wrote to FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach. “The proposed consolidation would be a major shift in FDA structure and reach, and it should undergo congressional review before any changes are implemented.” FDA has said it intends to announce by April which labs it intends to close.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley welcomed the senators’ letter; the union represents more than 5,200 FDA employees, including some 600 at the laboratories.

Last month, Kelley called the FDA plan “particularly short-sighted” in light of several serious public health issues dealing with foods that occurred during the latter part of 2006. While FDA has not said definitively, it appears it may reduce the number of its labs from 13 to possibly as few as four, basing its decision on budgetary problems.

As it did with NTEU, that proposal raised serious alarm among the senators, who questioned not only the wisdom of such action but its effectiveness as well. “We recognize that FDA faces serious budget constraints that force difficult choices,” they wrote, “but it is far from clear that consolidating (these) labs is a reasonable response to these difficult constraints.”

During a national emergency, they added, the FDA’s current broad network of laboratories “could prove particularly vital in rapidly responding to public health crises.”

The letter, put together by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said the signers look forward to working with the agency “to ensure that the FDA has the resources it needs to fulfill its mission.” Suspending the closings and providing related documentation “will assist us in identifying any critical funding gaps which need to be addressed,” they wrote.

When President Kelley raised her concerns a month ago, she said FDA’s financial argument is sharply undercut by its failure to provide any meaningful proof that larger and more centralized labs are better suited to help protect the nation’s food and drug supply.

This is not the first time the FDA has proposed cutting back its labs; when it sought to do so a decade ago, the Government Accountability Office was highly critical of the proposal, pointing to the lack of any proof that large labs are more efficient than medium-sized ones.

The laboratories are located in the Seattle area, San Francisco, the Los Angeles areas, Denver, Kansas City, Jefferson, Arkansas; Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, San Juan, Detroit, the Boston area and the Cincinnati area.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.