For Immediate Release:
May 23, 2006

WASHINGTON D.C. - Congressman Dan Boren today offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2007 Agriculture Appropriations Act to block the closure of the Agricultural Research Service lab in Lane, Okla.  The House adopted Boren’s amendment without opposition.

 

“We’re not in the clear just yet,” Boren said.  “But including this language in the bill is a significant step toward ensuring the lab’s future.”

 

Boren has been fighting to save the facility since he learned of the administration’s proposed closure in early March.  The proposal calls for transferring the facility’s $2 million budget and 30 personnel to other Agricultural Research Service facilities.

 

“My amendment would allow the scientists and support staff at the lab to continue their work at the facility,” Boren said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.  “The lab is important not only to my district and the state of Oklahoma, but also makes significant contributions to agriculture in the region, nation and across the globe.”

 

The facility at Lane is recognized nationally and internationally as a center of excellence for vine crop research, especially as it relates to watermelons and cantaloupe.  Scientists at the lab are leading research on watermelon vine decline, which watermelon growers have determined to be the most important challenge they will face in coming years.

 

“The people in the community of Lane are obviously concerned about the facility’s closure,” Boren said.  “But I have also heard from watermelon growers across the country who want to see the lab continue to contribute research to the industry.”

 

The ARS lab at Lane shares a facility with Oklahoma State University’s Wes Watkins Agricultural Research and Extension Center, named for one of Boren’s predecessors in Congress.  The combined facility has a $3 million impact on the local economy.

 

The Fiscal Year 2007 Agriculture Appropriations Act must now be considered in the Senate.

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