Lenexa ? Political leaders fighting to keep a Food and Drug Administration lab in this Kansas City suburb open say they have yet to get a response from the agency’s national officials concerning the closing.

Area U.S. senators and House members from both parties have sent letters to the FDA hoping to halt a consolidation proposal that would close the Lenexa lab and six others.

The Lenexa lab, which opened in 1992 and has more than 50 workers, tests food and pharmaceutical products. The lab is home to the FDA’s Total Diet and Pesticide Research Center. If the site shuts down, the closest lab to Kansas City would be in Jefferson, Ark.

At a news conference Friday, a group that included Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan.; Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and representatives from the offices of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.; and Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., reiterated its concerns about the closure’s effect on national security and food safety.

Moore referred to recent headlines about contamination of spinach, peanut butter and pet food.

“Now’s the time to be increasing and improving the capabilities of our FDA labs, not pursuing plans to privatize their work and drive experienced employees away,” Moore said.

Doug Arbesfeld, a spokesman with the FDA’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., said the FDA was looking to modernize its lab and inspection system and consolidating the labs would be a key part of that transformation.

“We believe people in the Kansas and Missouri area will continue to get the kind of services for food and drug safety that is needed,” he added.