By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — For the second time in a year, President Trump is threatening to close one of America’s most recognizable and prolific agricultural utilization laboratories.

As part of his 2018 comprehensive budget plan, “Building a Stronger America,” he proposed earlier this month to close the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s “Ag Lab” in Peoria, where penicillin was refined for mass distribution during World War II and work continues today by approximately 200 scientists and researchers to find new uses and build on existing technologies for crop utilization.

Officially known as the USDA National Center for Agricultural Utilization and Research (NCAUR), the gargantuan laboratory perched on a hillside above Interstate 74 in Peoria survived an effort last year by this administration to shutter its doors.

This latest attempt has left Illinois’ 17th District Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat, with no choice but to defend the facility’s workers and fight for its exclusion from the budget cutting-room floor.

“President Trump’s budget is a disaster for hardworking families across the heartland, and I’m going to fight tooth and nail to stop it. If his goal was to punch middle America in the gut, then this budget hits the mark with one broken promise after another,” Bustos said.

“Whether it’s undermining Peoria’s economy by closing the Ag Lab, defunding a program that supported Rockford in creating a skills pipeline or eliminating another program that is largely responsible for funding the Q Multimodal station in Moline, the Trump budget would hurt the hard-working families I serve.”

Ashley Maness, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3427, told local Gatehouse Media the union and NCAUR leaders expected the action from Trump. “We’re in the same place as last year, so we’ll go back to Congress and the Senate, and working with them,” Maness said.

As happened when Trump moved to shut down NCAUR in 2017, Republican 17th District Rep. Darin LaHood reached across the aisle to express support for NCAUR alongside Bustos.

“Similar to last year, this will remain a top priority for me to work in a bipartisan and bicameral way at the local, state and federal levels to maintain funding for the lab and ensure the facility remains an integral part of Peoria and the USDA’s research efforts,” he said.