[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today said that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved more than $13 million for Illinois projects. The Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture includes funding for the following Illinois projects:

Department of Agriculture: Agriculture Research Service: * Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation, Peoria. $3.6 million to support research and development work at BRDC. * Cost Efficient Ethanol Production, Edwardsville. $395,000 for USDA/ARS research at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Pilot Plant. * Livestock Genome Sequencing Initiative, Champaign-Urbana. $821,000 for the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana to crate an ordered map of large DNA clones covering the entire DNA in major species of food animals. Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service: * Future Foods, Champaign-Urbana. $666,000 for the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana to establish, operate, and institutionalize a World Food and Health Center. * Soybean Disease Biotechnology Research Center, Champaign-Urbana. $1.076 million to develop a research partnership with the National Soybean Research Lab at the University of Illinois for soybean research, including research on soybean rust. * Illinois-Missouri Alliance for Biotechnology, Champaign-Urbana. $100,000 for continuing biotechnology research at the Universities of Illinois and the University of Missouri. * Healthy Foods, State of Illinois. $250,000 for healthy foods and school nutrition programs to promote Illinois agriculture and address childhood obesity. Natural Resources Conservation Service: * Wildlife Habitat, Southern Illinois. $242,000 for a statewide wildlife management, education and technical assistance program for private landowners and natural resource professionals in cooperation with the National Wild Turkey Federation. * Illinois River Agricultural Water Conservation Project, Central Illinois. $242,000 to implement water quality and quantity enhancement projects on agricultural lands within the Illinois River Basin in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited. * West Branch DuPage River Watershed, DuPage County. $1 million for conservation activities in the West DuPage Watershed. * Illinois River Watershed, Peoria County. $250,000 to assist in a regional stormwater plan to address erosion and sedimentation in the Illinois River and Peoria Lakes. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: * Asian Longhorn Beetle, Chicago. $1.5 million for the City of Chicago and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to conduct field research and to mobilize efforts to identify, remove and dispose of infested trees. * Mammal and Avian Tuberculosis, Chicago. $100,000 for the Population Management Center – a collaboration between the Lincoln Park Zoo and Davee Center for Epidemiology to improve techniques, processes and systems to prevent disease transfer and ensure sustainability and maintenance of zoo populations nationwide. Food and Drug Administration: * National Center for Food Safety and Technology, Summit-Argo. $3 million to continue FDA food safety and security research at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. NCFST has received $3 million annually through a cooperative agreement with the FDA.