MANHATTAN — Kansas officials have been stunned to learn that Pres. Barack Obama’s proposed budget unveiled Monday has no additional funding to build the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility at Kansas State University. State officials worry that the president’s budget proposal endangers the $650 million project that the state had seen as a major spur of economic growth. The lab was intended to replace the lab at Plum Island, N.Y., and would research dangerous animal diseases when it opens in 2018. Work on the lab in Manhattan has already started. Powerful Democrats in the New York Congressional delegation have tried to shut off money for the Kansas project and to continue funding for Plum Island. The all-Republican Kansas Congressional delegation and Brownback have issued statements demanding that funding on the manhattan lab continued – while issuing other statements that Obama’s budget proposal is irresponsible and spending money the government doesn’t have.
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 4 p.m.
