WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry today announced that the Senate passed the Agriculture, Rural Development and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2010 including important projects for Kansas. The bill now goes to a conference committee with the House version of the bill.

"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-$300,000

Animal Science and Food Safety Consortium, joint project with KSU, Iowa State, and Arkansas-$1,000,000

National Agriculture Biosecurity Center at KSU-$500,000Grain 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-$1,000,000

USDA Homeland Security, Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative-$9,830,000:

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

Kansas benefits from the teamwork of Senator Roberts and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture.

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