Kansas House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to authorize issuing $202 million in bonds to build a federal biodefense research lab in Manhattan.
The Kansas Senate has given first-round approval to a bill that would issue $200 million in additional state bonds to help pay for a federal research lab to be built in Manhattan.
Gov. Sam Brownback's chief of staff says the latest cost estimates for a new, national biosecurity lab and commitments from federal officials about its funding are "pretty solid."
Conservative Republican senators are pushing back at Gov. Sam Brownback's request that Kansas issue $202 million dollars more in bonds to help finance construction of a federal bio-security lab
Members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee heard the pitch Thursday from Landon Fulmer, the governor's chief of staff.
Fulmer says the bonding request represented the last money that Kansas would have to contribute to building the $1.15 billion dollar National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University.
President Obama's 2014 budget proposal includes more than $700 million for NBAF, the state-of-the-art biosecurity lab planned for Manhattan, adjacent to Kansas State University.
In response to the budget announcement, Gov. Sam Brownback immediately pledged to work with lawmakers during the upcoming veto session to approve state bonds to help complete the lab.
The president is asking for an additional $202 million in state support for the project.
