Clarion-Ledger: Letter to the Editor

Visit signals that Miss. now poised to welcome NBAF

Today, Mississippi finds itself inching closer to the opportunity of a generation. Department of Homeland Security officials will visit Flora this afternoon to solicit input from Mississippians regarding the proposed National Bio and Agro Defense Facility. Scientists at this state-of-the-art facility will study how to protect our nation’s livestock against an accidental or terror-related release of animal diseases.

Two years ago, 29 sites from around the country submitted proposals to the department in hopes of landing this critical facility in their communities. Six finalists remain in contention, and I am proud that Mississippi is one of them. Our citizens, governor, universities, local officials, and congressional delegation should be commended for their cooperation in this effort.

The construction and operation of the $500 million NBAF would create hundreds of skilled jobs and would likely spur a biotechnology boom in Mississippi. Developers have said its impact would approach or exceed that of the Stennis Space Center, Canton’s Nissan plant, or Blue Springs’s Toyota plant.

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An article was published today in the Clarion-Ledger titled “Senate Democrats press for approval of cold-cases bill,” and our campaign thought it was important to let readers know about Senator Cochran’s support for this bill which was not included in the article.  Senator Cochran was an original cosponsor of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act which is a bill that provdies funding for new Justice Department efforts to prosecute old civil rights crimes.  He also helped introduce the bill in the last congress with Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Senator Jim Talent (R-MO). 

Here are a few excerpts from the article with details of the bill:

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act - named after a black teenager who was slain in Money, Miss., in 1955 - and dozens of other measures have been gathered into a 400-page bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The bills have little in common. One would fund Washington’s subway system, another would create an electronic database of slavery records and post-Civil War reconstruction efforts. Most were blocked from votes by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., mainly because he wants open debate on the legislation and the opportunity to amend it.

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and other Senate Democrats lobbied for the Emmett Till measure at a news conference Wednesday.

The measure would authorize $10 million for the Justice Department to open a new office to investigate cold civil rights cases. The office would cost about $2 million a year to operate.

Click here to read the full article in the Clarion Ledger.