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Release Date: August 9, 2006
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: (202) 282-8010
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate announced today that 18 sites located in 11 states have advanced to the next phase in the competitive process to select the site for DHS’s proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF).
As a joint activity with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), DHS is developing the requirements for a next-generation biological and agricultural defense facility to enhance and protect the country’s agriculture and public health. The work planned for the NBAF will address biological and agricultural national security risks by co-locating scientists from several federal agencies in a state-of-the-art bio safety containment facility.
DHS plans to equip the NBAF with numerous laboratories that will conduct research in high-consequence biological threats involving foreign animal, zoonotic (transmitted from animals to humans), and human diseases. As a key part of this, DHS plans to house laboratories that will provide high security spaces for agricultural and animal studies and training. In addition, DHS plans for the NBAF to develop vaccine countermeasures for foreign animal diseases, and provide advanced test and evaluation capability for threat detection, vulnerability, and countermeasure assessment for animal and zoonotic diseases.
DHS built a multi-agency (DHS, USDA, Department of Defense, HHS) multi-disciplinary (engineers, scientists, lawyers, academics, communicators) team to conduct the reviews of 29 interested sites for the NBAF. The teams narrowed down the list to 18 potential sites based on four criteria: acquisition/construction/operations, research capabilities, workforce, and community acceptance.
The following consortia which have proposed sites for DHS to locate the NBAF, in alphabetical order by state, have advanced to the next phase of DHS’s site planning process:
The consortia that proposed these 18 sites will now be given the opportunity to provide more detailed information in support of their submissions. By the end of 2006, DHS expects to review these more detailed submissions and narrow the potential sites to a small list of final candidates. The short list of candidate sites will then be the subjects of environmental impact studies (EIS) following requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. Upon completion of the EIS process, DHS expects to name the final NBAF site in early 2008.
This page was last modified on August 9, 2006