Union, Congress Objected
FDA Backs Off Plan To Close Test Labs

By ARI PAUL

The Food and Drug Administration is shelving a plan to close seven test laboratories around the country, a move that pleased the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents many of the affected workers.

COLLEEN M. KELLEY: 'Reinvest in labs.'

The agency's Office of Regulatory Affairs had planned to consolidate seven of the agency's 13 facilities into larger, more centralized laboratories, inciting criticism from the union as well as from Congress.

Reviewing the Situation

"We have agreed that it is appropriate to take the time now to fully consider the [Office of Regulatory Affairs" Transformation Plan in light of the new import and food safety initiatives," the FDA's Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, Margaret Glavin, wrote to ORA employees in an e-mail Aug. 17. "To assure our success and allow additional time to gather input, I am canceling plans for the rollout of all changes to our organization structure."

Translation: the closures are on hold. NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley called Ms. Glavin's declaration "the right decision for the American people."

But while various news sources stated that the FDA had scrapped the plan outright, an FDA spokeswoman insisted that it was a temporary change.

"[The] FDA is temporarily suspending the plan to reorganize our field operations, including the lab closures, to re-evaluate [the] best way to proceed, in [the] context of looking at priorities, investment needs, business processes to support new food safety strategy, import changes from President's Import Working Group, and then figure out what organizational changes are needed to support all this," spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said in an e-mail.

Congress Took Action

The U.S. House of Representatives adopted language Aug. 2 to the 2008 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would forbid the FDA from going through with the closings, which Ms. Kelley called the "the most definitive statement yet that the FDA plan is unwise."

U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, hailed the announcement in a statement: "The daily reports of unsafe products from China and elsewhere highlight the need for keeping the labs open and tightening our inspection process. When Congress reconvenes we will introduce legislation to provide the resources and authorities FDA needs to protect Americans."

Ms. Glavin insisted in her e-mail that the FDA would accept input from Congress as well as ORA employees concerning future reorganization plans.

"I hope the FDA will use the lessons learned in this episode to consider its field structure in the context of how best to serve the public interest," Ms. Kelley said in a statement. "To that end, it is imperative that the agency now invest resources in all its laboratories to make them as efficient and effective as possible. The public health demands no less."