WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, today announced that the Senate passed the Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Conference Report for Fiscal Year 2010 including important projects for Kansas. The conference report was approved by the House of Representatives yesterday, and now goes to the president to be signed into law.

“I am pleased this bill contains significant investments to research conducted in Manhattan and at Kansas State,” Senator Roberts said. “This research is critical to ensure that America’s farmers and ranchers continue to compete in the international marketplace.”

The following are projects Senator Roberts personally worked to include in the bill:
Air Quality Research at KSU, joint project with Texas-$1,090,000
Animal Science and Food Safety Consortium, joint project with KSU, Iowa State, and Arkansas-$1,000,000

The following projects Senators Roberts and Brownback worked to include in the bill:
National Agriculture Biosecurity Center at KSU-$500,000
Grain Sorghum Research at KSU-$1,000,000
Preharvest Food Safety at KSU-$500,000
Water Conservation at KSU-$500,000
Wheat Genetic Research at KSU-$1,000,000
Yankee Tank Dam- Wakarusa Site No. 24 in Lawrence-$1,000,000
USDA Homeland Security, Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative-$9,830,000. Kansas State receives funding from this national program in support of its plant diagnostics laboratory. The lab provides rapid response diagnostic capabilities for potential disease outbreaks in Kansas and Great Plains crops.

Agriculture Research Service – Manhattan:
Biological Research Unit - $2, 700,000
Engineering Research Unit - $1,200,000
Grain Quality & Structure Research Unit - $2,900,000
Plant Science & Entomology Research Unit - $2,300,000
Wind Erosion Research Unit - $1,000,000