Washington had managed to put a hiring roadblock in front of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, a laboratory built to protect the country’s livestock, food supply and public health. Sen. Jerry Moran did not accept the usual federal shuffle. He pushed the Trump administration for an answer and got one.
The problem came from a government-wide hiring freeze that threatened recruitment for scientific and operational jobs at NBAF. Moran pressed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in November 2025 to exempt the Manhattan facility and move its critical hiring forward.
He also brought USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden to Manhattan for a tour. Federal leaders saw the facility and its needs up close, not through another stack of Washington paperwork.
Moran’s warning left little room for bureaucratic excuses. “A lack of staff in both science and operational roles will hinder NBAF’s function and mission, threatening national food and agriculture security,” he wrote.
USDA relented. In January 2026, the department exempted NBAF from the freeze and allowed recruitment for vacant positions to continue. Moran welcomed the decision as progress toward bringing the laboratory to full operational capacity.
That is what Republican oversight looks like when it has some teeth. A blanket federal rule got in the way of Kansas’ work. Moran put the responsible officials on the spot, and the rule gave way.
The work inside NBAF is bigger than the federal acronym on the sign. The USDA mission statement says the Manhattan facility researches dangerous animal diseases, develops vaccines and provides diagnostic and training capabilities. Its focus includes transboundary, emerging and zoonotic diseases that threaten agriculture and public health.
According to USDA’s facility overview, NBAF will replace and expand the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The Manhattan laboratory is expected to employ more than 400 people when fully operational. More than 300 team members supported its scientific work and operations as of December 2024.
Those numbers matter in Manhattan, but this fight was never only about a payroll. A foreign animal disease can rip through herds, shut producers out of markets and punish rural communities before Washington has finished organizing its response. Kansas cattle producers, veterinarians and food companies need the nation’s defenses ready before a threat arrives.
Moran’s pressure also defended years of work that placed Manhattan inside the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor. Researchers, universities and private companies there have built one of the world’s strongest animal-health networks. Starving its high-security federal laboratory of staff would have wasted an advantage Kansas had already earned.
The exemption will not fill every vacancy overnight. It does remove the federal order that stood between NBAF and the people it needs.
Kansas supplied the scientific base. The Trump USDA removed the freeze. Moran made sure Washington did not leave a major agricultural defense facility waiting for permission to defend American agriculture. That is a Kansas Republican result, plain and simple.