Breaking news: House kills Farm Bill and King Amendment – for now
The primary goal of the King Amendment is to undermine our historic California egg law, which requires that shell eggs sold in the state come from hens who are not cruelly confined. Photo by iStockphoto
I have some encouraging news to report: the U.S. House of Representatives this afternoon defeated the Farm Bill with the King amendment by a vote of 198 to 213. Rep. Steve King’s amendment could eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of state and local laws protecting animals, children, workers, consumers and the environment, but its primary goal is to undermine our historic California egg law, which requires that shell eggs sold in the state come from hens who are not cruelly confined.
We owe a debt of thanks to all of our supporters who called their lawmakers and urged them to vote no on the Farm Bill in this objectionable version. I am also happy to report that an amendment to strengthen the federal animal fighting law passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 359 to 51. This amendment clarifies that federal prohibitions against dogfighting and cockfighting activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce apply to all U.S. jurisdictions, including U.S. territories.
Unfortunately, another amendment we supported, which would have required transparency and accountability in commodity checkoff programs and prevented checkoff dollars from being used to lobby against animal welfare reforms and family farmers, was withdrawn. But its very filing drew attention to this important issue, and we’ll continue to fight that battle through every means available.
Note: We’re not out of the woods yet, and we need your continued engagement. As the House works to reshape the Farm Bill in order to garner enough votes for its passage, we want to urge legislators to remove King’s federal power grab, retain the animal fighting provision, and preserve a great amendment by Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., adopted in committee, which bans the slaughter, trade, import and export of dogs and cats for human consumption. Let’s celebrate the news today, while keeping up the pressure on Congress to ensure that the next version of the Farm Bill reflects the American public’s support for animal protection.
I could jump up and down!! I know we are not out of the woods quite yet but it’s a start. I pray they rework the bill MINUS Kings amendment.
Thanks for this good news.
Great job. The real Stephen King must have been horrified knowing his name might have been conflated with such a horror.
I felt relief and happy tears welled in my eyes after reading about this. I’m so happy that the HSUS is in existence and that so many people care for reasons such as this an many more! Keep up the excellent work!
who eats cats and dogs in the US when there are beef, pork and chicken jeff dunham amendment is a waste time and tax payers money
Many Asians eat them. Missing pets could be processed and shipped overseas or sold in certain ethnic shops. Sad commentary on what our USA is becoming.
Thank you HSUS and Kitty for the update. I have been looking all over to find out about the evil King amendment in the Farm Bill. I am so relieved it was not passed. I have been posting on social media to get the word out about this evil pile of toxic sewage known as Rep. King. He is a threat to all living beings and the people of Iowa should get rid of him.
Representative King is the most anti- animal welfare member of Congress and is so callous and uncaring about innocent animals suffering that hopefully all decent American voters in his state will remove him from office. Totally immoral and corrupt!