Topeka ? The House passed a bill Thursday aimed at making bioscience research a major industry in Kansas and creating thousands of high-paying jobs.

The measure, approved 119-6, would create a Kansas Bioscience Authority to nurture and promote research as well as any products that might result. The bill moves on to the Senate.

Republican legislative leaders presented the plan last month as a major economic development initiative. They said Kansas could gain 20,000 jobs by 2015 in biosciences and a similar number through creation of a center to help Kansans start small businesses.

The plan would invest tax revenue generated by new companies back into the initiative — an estimated $593 million over 11 years, sponsors have said.

Under the bill, the new biosciences authority would work with state universities to recruit star scholars and support research.

The authority, governed by an 11-member board, also could issue bonds for construction of state-of-the-art research facilities and for matching federal grants.

“We need a new major segment of the Kansas economy,” said Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, chairman of the House Economic Development Committee. “My hope is that in 10 years, whoever is here will be talking about bioscience and its significant impact on the Kansas economy.”

Much of the House debate centered on the potential for the construction of new research centers and whether construction jobs should be guaranteed to go to Kansans, to keep state money in the state.

But some lawmakers said such a requirement could hamstring the state if no Kansas company had the technical expertise for a particular project.

“We don’t micromanage construction projects like that,” Wilk said. “We don’t know what kind of facilities we may build. Clearly we want the best people in the country or the world.”

Rep. Valdenia Winn, D-Kansas City, proposed that 75 percent of all construction jobs on research centers should be given to Kansans. She said Wilk and other House members were selling Kansas workers short.

“To me, this signals to Kansans they’re not smart enough to build these types of labs,” Winn said. “We’re telling them we thought they were idiots and not smart enough to build a lab.”

Her proposal failed, as did another setting the jobs threshold at 65 percent.

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Bioscience bill is HB 2647.

On the Net:

Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org