WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today applauded the Bureau of Prison's announcement that it has identified Leavenworth, Kansas, for its potential new Midwestern facility and its inclusion in President Bush's FY 2009 budget request which was released today.

"The Leavenworth community is willing and able to house a new federal prison facility," said Brownback. "The city of Leavenworth for a long time has been prepared to work with the Prison Bureau to build and operate a new prison."

The President's budget, announced today, stipulates approximately $1.4 million for the Prison Bureau's evaluation of a site for the construction of a prison. The Bureau of Prisons has identified Leavenworth as the likely site of a new Midwestern new prison. Currently, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice own acreage that is contiguous to Fort Leavenworth which would be able to accommodate a new prison. This property currently houses two Bureau of Prison facilities, USP Leavenworth and the minimum security Honor Farm, and is also cable of accommodating a new facility.

Brownback last year sent a letter to Director Harley Lappin asking that the BOP consider building its new facility in Leavenworth, and later toured the Leavenworth United States Prison campus.