NEWPORT — The Hatfield Marine Science Center just got one step closer to realizing its dream of a new Marine Mammal/Marine Genomics Center.

Both legislative chambers have unanimously passed House Bill 3643, which shifts $9 million from the Oregon State University’s capital construction budget to the marine mammal project.

Assuming Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the bill, researchers at Hatfield hope that amount will be enough to win $16 million in federal funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also called NIST. Combined, that would be $25 million, enough to build the new center.

“This would establish a unique center, a university-based center for the study of marine mammals,” said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute. “It would be the largest in the U.S.

“It will give us the unique capacity to advance technology for the study of and protection of marine mammals, including satellite tagging, advanced studies of life history and analyses of genetics diversity.”

Genomics is working with genes but at the level of an entire genome.

“Where we once would have looked at three or four genes, now we can look at thousands in each individual,” Baker said.

The Hatfield Center first applied for funding from NIST about three years ago and ranked in the top seven out of 93 proposals, but only two were funded. The center tried again in 2009 and scored among the top proposals, but the state failed to come up with the necessary matching funds.

“When the university came back and showed me the notes that NIST put on their proposal it was very, very striking,” said Rep. Jean Cowan, D-Newport, who sponsored the bill. “It said things like the ‘project was scientifically and technically excellent’ and that the research ‘plays to the current strengths of the OSU faculty and the greater research community housed at Hatfield Marine Science Center.’ But they also noted that cost share funding had not been secured. That was the real challenge.”

The Coastal Caucus, made up of nine legislative members in the House and Senate with districts on the coast, helped push the bill through, Cowan said.

If the project is completed, it would add about 100 new faculty and staff at Hatfield and bring $9 million to $15 million to Oregon’s economy, according to OSU President Ed Ray. “As an economist, I look at that as a pretty good deal. The leadership of the Coastal Caucus in securing the funding has been invaluable.”