Senate Approves $32 Million For Kansas Bio-defense Lab

Kansas City, MO – The U.S. Senate has approved $32 million for a massive Kansas lab aimed at research on foot-and-mouth and other diseases.

The money is in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill that the Senate approved on a vote of 79-19 Tuesday. The House has already approved the $44.1 billion compromise spending bill, which is headed to President Barack Obama.

Kansas officials defeated a House plan to exclude money for the lab. But lab opponents have restricted spending of the money to non-construction work. They also have required more study on the safety of moving foot-and-mouth disease research to the U.S. mainland from an island off New York.

The 520,000-square-foot lab would house the research facilities and animals such as cattle.