In their fiscal 2008 Agriculture spending bills the House and Senate appropriations committees have denied funding for the Food and Drug Administration to proceed with plans to consolidate its labs as part of a reorganization of its Office of Regulatory Affairs.
In December FDA proposed to close seven of its 13 labs and consolidate them into "mega-labs." The labs to close are in Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Francisco, Winchester, Mass., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents hundreds of the FDA employees that work in the labs praised the move, and cited an informal coalition of lawmakers who oppose consolidation or want it postponed.
Last December FDA told employees that consecutive years of flat budgets necessitated the consolidation for the sake of efficiency, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility stated afterward that money had not been set aside for buyouts or relocations costs for employees being moved to other labs.
The House energy and commerce oversight subcommittee held a hearing recently regarding food safety issues where the lab-closing plan was scrutinized, partly driven by a rash of highly publicized contaminations of Chinese imports, as well as revelations that the FDA is spread thin.
"The Kansas City lab played an instrumental role in tracking the problems of the recent pet food contamination," said subcommittee chairman Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., adding, "The Detroit field lab saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by studying drug stability."
