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 second chance is really a first step. The Coalition calls on all those who care about Plum Island to stand by as we look to the next steps in keeping it forever in public ownership.”