With a new drug lab scheduled to open in New Hampshire next spring, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., is co-authoring bipartisan legislation to exempt Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lab workers from President Trump’s ongoing hiring freeze on civilian workers.

While most DEA positions were exempt from the freeze that Trump signed January, Pappas said lab positions such as chemists and fingerprint analysts were not specifically exempt.

Construction on the DEA’s eighth regional testing lab in the nation, in Londonderry, is expected to finish in April.

This will be the first permanent lab anywhere in New England to process suspected illicit drug samples.

The new lab is expected to process 5,000 drug and fingerprint identification cases a day for all federal law enforcement in New En

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