By Bloodhorse.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 15, 2014) — Several provisions that impact the horse industry, including maintaining a ban on horse slaughter, were included in the omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress Dec. 13.
The bill is a package that includes parts of the fiscal year 2015 appropriations bills and will fund most government agencies and programs until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, 2015.
The legislation includes language that prohibits the United State Department of Agriculture from using any funds to provide inspectors at meat processing facilities that slaughter horses, continuing a block that has been in effect since 2005, except for a brief period in 2012-13.
No horse slaughter facilities are operating in the U.S. and the bill would effectively prevent any such facility from opening until Sept. 30, 2015.
The language was included in the omnibus bill because both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees adopted amendments that prohibited funding for inspectors at horse slaughter facilities when they debated and approved their respective versions of the 2015 USDA appropriations bill.
The omnibus bill also includes:
—A requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers withdraw the interpretive rule regarding Clear Water Act exemptions for agricultural discharges of dredge and fill materials into “Waters of the U.S.”, and prohibits requiring a permit for dredge and fill material. The American Horse Council opposed the interpretive rule because it could place new constraints on horse farms and ranches. The interpretive ruling limited the exemption for agricultural discharges of dredge and fill materials to 56 specified conservation practices. Previously, it was understood that the exemption applied to all “normal farming, silviculture and ranching activities, such as plowing, seeding, cultivating, minor drainage, harvesting for the production of food, fiber, and forest products, or upland soil and water conservation practices.”
—A provision that would prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from euthanizing healthy wild horses in its care or from selling wild horses or burros that result in their being processed into commercial products.
—A $871.3 million appropriation for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which is the USDA agency responsible for protecting the U.S. equine industry and responding to contagious equine disease outbreaks. Funding for equine, cervid, and small rumiant health is set at $19.5 million, the same as in 2014.
—Extension of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. FLREA is the authorizing legislation that allows the federal land management agencies to charge fees, but also limits when fees can be charged and how those fees are used. Services and facilities for which no fee can be charged include pass-through travel by horseback riding and sites with horse camp units designed primarily to accommodate stock and overnight use.