WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday that would allow the Naval Academy to stop operating its historic dairy farm in western Anne Arundel County.
The waiver, part of the $268.2 billion defense budget, was sponsored by Maryland Reps. Democrat Steny H. Hoyer and Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest, a team trying to help the academy end a quirky, money-losing venture. Set up in 1911 to provide safe milk to midshipmen after a typhoid scare, the farm costs the academy $1.1 million a year to operate, resulting in an annual loss of $250,000.
