Groups challenges selection of biodefense site
Homeland Security officials, along with Kansas senators, are adamantly defending the decision to build multimillion facility in Manhattan, Kan.
A Texas coalition of nonprofit and business groups has filed a federal lawsuit arguing the Homeland Security Department improperly selected a site in Kansas to build a massive $720 million biodefense facility, including allegations that Kansas Republican Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback exercised improper political influence over the decision.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by the Texas Biological and Agro-Defense Consortium, is likely to spark tensions among lawmakers over the best place to build the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which will be a high-containment laboratory to research countermeasures for deadly pathogens.
After a three-year site selection process, the department in January chose Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., for the project. The Kansas site was heavily backed by a local consortium and the two senators.
The lawsuit alleges that the department acted "unreasonably, arbitrarily and capriciously" in selecting the Kansas site, and asks the court to name Texas Research Park in San Antonio as the preferred alternative. It also alleges the Kansas site selection resulted from "improper and unfair political influence." According to the lawsuit, Homeland Security officials met with Kansas state and federal lawmakers, including Roberts and Brownback, without the presence of counsel as required by department policy.
The department allegedly told the Texas consortium it would not meet with any federal or state officials from states in the competition. Meanwhile, in addition to the lawsuit, a bipartisan group of 17 House members from Texas and Georgia have asked the department's inspector general to investigate the site selection process. The inspector general's office would not confirm or deny an investigation is occurring.
Homeland Security officials, along with Roberts and Brownback, are adamantly defending the selection of the Kansas site. "Kansas was selected on the merits because it has the right expertise and infrastructure to protect the American food supply," Roberts and Brownback said in a joint statement. "Frivolous lawsuits only delay the critical research to be conducted at the lab and create an undue risk to American agriculture and our national security."
A Roberts spokeswoman said the senator pushed strongly for the Kansas site but disputed allegations he exerted improper influence over the selection. She said Roberts hosted a meeting for department officials and gave them a tour of the biosecurity research institute at Kansas State, which she noted is in a building named after Roberts. But she said the Kansas team put tremendous effort into winning the selection and met every requirement.
A Homeland Security spokesman said the department would not comment on the lawsuit. But he said the site selection process "involved a transparent multi-year process, punctuated with public meetings near each finalist location." He added that the decision "concurred with the unanimous recommendation of a civil servant panel comprised of both the department and USDA experts as well as a detailed environmental impact statement of six potential site locations."