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Washington, D.C — The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today again sharply criticized efforts by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to close seven of its 13 labs nationwide, this time after a tour of the FDA lab in Lenexa, Kan., with Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.). The Lenexa facility is one of the seven labs targeted for closure.

“Rep. Moore has organized tremendous support from his colleagues to pressure the FDA to keep this lab open,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “He has been a leading defender of this labs in the halls of Congress, and with his continued support, we will win this fight.”

Kelley and Moore were joined on the tour by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), Lenexa Mayor Mike Boehm and members of local NTEU chapter 254, representing FDA employees in the Kansas City area. After touring the lab, Kelley promised to work with members of Congress and local politicians to fight any effort affecting the community at large.

“With the serious food-related illness issues that have arisen in the past – pet food, peanut butter, spinach, to name a few – the FDA needs to bolster its resources, not deplete them,” Kelley said. “The FDA has never made the case that closing any of its labs will better protect the public’s health. In fact, closing labs like Lenexa will only weaken the agency’s ability to respond to future food-borne emergencies.”

The Lenexa lab is home to the FDA’s Total Diet and Pesticide Research Center which conducts research and product analysis on a wide variety of food and chemicals, including pharmaceutical products, pet food and more than 300 pesticide residues.

The lab’s Total Diet Program has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and, in 2002, the lab was outfitted with $5 million in new counterterrorism equipment. More than 50 highly-trained scientists and researchers could lose their jobs if the Lenexa facility shuts its doors.

“That is hundreds of years of professional scientific expertise effectively flushed down the drain,” Kelley said, adding that some employees will take jobs in the private sector rather than move to a FDA lab in a different community.

“The Lenexa lab primarily serves the populations of Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, and is within a day’s drive of four more states,” Kelley explained. “Millions of people could see their health jeopardized if the FDA implements this shortsighted plan.”

On Feb. 27 the FDA announced plans to reorganize its Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA). As a result, the Lenexa lab, as well as labs in Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Winchester, Mass., are slated to close by 2009.

In an effort to halt the consolidation, last month Reps. Moore and Boyda organized a bipartisan letter to the FDA, signed by 25 House members, asking the agency to allow Congress to thoroughly review the plan’s impact. A Senate letter was signed by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).

Along with criticizing the current consolidation plan, which includes not only lab closures, but also a complete restructuring of the agency’s field operations, Kelley pointed to a similar failed FDA consolidation plan in the mid-1990s. At that time, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a highly-critical critique of the agency’s plan, saying it could not effectively prove that large labs are more efficient than medium-sized ones.

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