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The federal budget package released Monday afternoon includes language (Division FF, Title V) repealing 2009 and 2012 bills associated with the plan to relocate the animal disease research facility on Plum Island to Manhattan, Kansas. The House and Senate are expected to pass the bill promptly, and the president is expected to sign it. This action will restore the normal disposal procedure for federal property instead of auctioning it off to the highest bidder. Next steps then include ensuring the island is transferred to another federal agency, state, or other body, a process that may take several years. “It is rare in conservation to get a second chance. All too often, a species becomes irretrievably lost to extinction or a forest is irreparably destroyed by development. But Congress, through repeal of the mandate directing the sale of Plum Island, is giving the island a second chance,” said John Turner, spokesperson for the Preserve Plum Island Coalition. “But this seco
Plum Island Lighthouse
After more than a decade of uncertainty, the mandated sale of Plum Island may be off the table as part of a federal spending bill that could be approved this week.
U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Wednesday that a provision in the 2021 federal spending bill will permanently block the sale until local entities decide what the 840-acre island’s fate should be.
In a press release, Mr. Schumer said the spending bill includes $18.9 million for cleaning up the island, which will remain under federal ownership through the Department of Homeland Security.
“We’re closer than ever before to saving Plum Island.”