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Washington D.C. — Significant opposition—including a Senate amendment to an authorization bill—continues to build against an ill-conceived plan by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to close seven of its 13 laboratories and restructure its field operations.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), who has been a vocal critic of the FDA plan, welcomed both the FDA authorization bill amendment offered by Senators Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) and Arlen Specter (R. Pa.), and a letter released by Specter strongly opposing the plan from the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. Among the labs slated to be closed are those in Denver and Philadelphia.

“It seems clear, with three major food-borne outbreaks in the last 18 months,” President Kelley said, “that closing FDA labs endangers the health of all Americans. It is time to take this proposal off the table.”

The FDA has received a variety of clear messages from Congress, including bipartisan letters of concern from 20 senators, and a number of House members, calling for a halt to the proposal while Congress reviews the impact of the plan.

Nonetheless, despite the intense and growing opposition, the agency is moving ahead with the plan it announced in February to close, by 2009, labs not only in Denver and Philadelphia, but in Detroit, Lenexa, Kan., San Francisco, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Winchester, Mass., as well.

The Salazar-Specter amendment would prevent a reduction or consolidation in the number of FDA lab facilities within its Office of Regulatory Affairs pending “a comprehensive review” of the plan by the Government Accountability Office, which would have to issue a report within a year.

Sen. Salazar noted that as a member lab of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN)—and the only full-service lab within that network—the Denver FDA lab plays an important role in national security. It also, he said, is part of the Centers for Disease Control Select Agent Program, making it one of the first lines of defense against possible bioterrorism attacks.

“The FDA decision to arbitrarily close its Denver lab simply does not make any sense,” he said. “An objective process grounded in public facts is necessary for the public, and for Congress, to feel secure in this decision.”

Meanwhile, the letter from the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority warned that closing the lab in that area would “have an extraordinarily negative effect on Pennsylvania’s international maritime commerce.”

The loss of the lab, the authority’s executive director said, would seriously impede the ability of the port to process large volumes of imported meat and produce. “Having local FDA personnel available to provide quick and accurate response is essential for the port to maintain its leadership in this area.” He warned, as well, that the lab consolidation “has the potential of compromising public health and safety.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including 5,200 in the FDA.