As debate over the federal debt ceiling rages in Washington, D.C., and the larger conversation between Democrats and Republicans centers around federal spending in the future, one item that hits close to home on the North Fork is the viability of a plan which would cease operations at Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
According to a Long Island Press article, the plan to relocate the operations to Kansas, and build a $1 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, remains in question as legislators attempt to find ways to trim future spending.
“The environment for getting NBAF funded is getting more and more difficult,” Kansas House Minority Leader Paul Davis, a Lawrence Democrat, told a reporter.
As of now, Congress has mandated the sale of federally-owned Plum Island, with proceeds going toward building a new facility. Southold Town planners are in the process of zoning the un-zoned land, expecting to utilize the existing infrastructure in the future to house another research facility.
Click here to read the entire article on the Long Island Press.
