American Horse
Council Press Release
Contact: NLamoureux@horsecouncil.org
Making Horses Eligible for Federal Emergency Funds
Language making horses eligible
for federal disaster assistance is now included in the USDA FY 2006
appropriations bill. The provision was added as an amendment offered by
Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). It was passed by voice vote. Its
effective date would be July 28 in order to cover losses suffered because of
Hurricane Katrina. The full 2006 USDA appropriations bill must still be
passed by the Senate and this could occur as soon as today or tomorrow.
The provision is the same as the
language in the Equine Equity Act (S. 1528) introduced in July by Senators
McConnell, Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR).
There is no similar provision in
the House-passed USDA Appropriations bill. A Conference Committee will be
formed to work out the various differences between the two bills and the
Conference bill will then have to be passed by Congress.
This legislation would also make
horses eligible for federal emergency relief similar to other livestock and
crops. It would specifically repeal the restrictive definition of
livestock under the old and outdated Agricultural Act of 1949, which defined
“livestock” to consist of various animals, including “equine animals used for
food or in the production of food.”
The exclusion of horses from
relief under the various federal livestock assistance programs instituted since
then seems to have followed that same definition and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture has followed suit in administering them. Horses have thus
been ineligible for federal emergency funds, except when the industry got special
ad hoc authorization for federally-guaranteed loans for foal losses caused by
Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome. Senators McConnell and Bunning
spearheaded passage of that relief also.
“This legislation would end the
unfair discrimination of horses and make horse breeders and owners eligible for
emergency assistance that producers of other crops and livestock have enjoyed,”
said Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council. “Broadening the
current emergency assistance programs to include horses will rectify the unfair
economic situation now facing horse owners and breeders versus other livestock
producers in the aftermath of disasters.”
Please call us with any
questions.