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Washington D.C.—In the wake of the rising risk of unsafe and contaminated food across the country, it would be both unwise and foolish for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to press ahead with its proposal to close more than half of its 13 nationwide laboratories, the leader of the union representing FDA employees told key members of Congress today.

In a letter to Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of its Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley thanked the two lawmakers for “continuing their critical examination of the FDA’s misguided proposal” to close the labs and for convening an important hearing on food safety. NTEU represents some 600 FDA laboratory employees.

“NTEU has opposed this plan from the start for a variety of reasons—most importantly because it is wrong for our nation,” Kelley wrote to the two long-serving lawmakers, as the subcommittee opened a follow-up hearing on the FDA’s ability to address issues impacting the nation’s food supply.

The laboratory closings are projected as part of an FDA reorganization of its Office of Regulatory Affairs. “Such a move would result in an unacceptable loss of scientific expertise,” the NTEU leader said, including highly-skilled technical and professional employees who likely would turn to private sector employment rather than uproot their lives and move long distances to remain in government service.

Labs on the closure list include Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Winchester, Mass., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The FDA proposal is to consolidate the regional labs into a fewer number of so-called ‘mega-labs.’ As have a number of members of the both the House and Senate—including Reps. Dingell and

Stupak—President Kelley has attacked the FDA plan. She noted in her letter that the agency “has failed completely to articulate a supportable reason for the proposed cutbacks,” and, in fact, has backed away from its earlier claimed rationale that the move is budget-driven.

Not only that, the NTEU leader wrote, the FDA has “offered no evidence to back up its assertion” that the mega-labs that would be created under its proposal are better positioned to perform the agency’s mission.

In fact, she said, a comprehensive system of smaller, regional and varied labs is much better suited to address the duties of the FDA, including its responses to food-borne illnesses that may break out in different parts of the country.

“For these and other reasons,” she told Reps. Dingell and Stupak, “NTEU stands firm in its opposition to this proposal.”

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