The devious EATS Act, a version of the FARM Bill with awful anti-animal provisions, and a horrible bill that would have made it extremely easy to destroy nonprofit organizations all failed in Congress this year. While we must stay informed and vigilant, we can take a moment to feel pride and gratitude that we fought back against all of them and that these incredibly awful bills all failed.

The EATS Act was introduced this past federal legislative two-year session in order to undermine individual states' abilities to enact laws, especially affecting agricultural practices. This would have negatively impacted laws affecting factory farms, fur farms, and puppy mills and it would very likely compromise many other animal welfare protections. 

The 2023 Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act (H.R 4999/ S.2619) sponsored by Kansas senator Roger Marshall and introduced to the House by Iowa representative Ashley Hinson, was an updated version of the 2021 EATS Act that also failed to pass. The EATS Act was intended to prevent states and local jurisdictions from regulating the production and distribution of their agricultural products regarding interstate commerce. This would strip away state laws banning the confinement of egg-laying hens, mother pigs, and calves used for veal. 

Not only would the EATS Act undermine individual states' abilities to enact laws affecting agricultural practices, but it would very likely compromise many other animal welfare protections. Most legislation for animals could be wiped out by this bill, making it extremely difficult to pass future legislation for animals. An alert we created in July 2023 generated almost 30,000 letters from close to 10,000 In Defense of Animals supporters. We’re so thrilled this bill died and will warily watch for it to reappear in the 2025-2026 legislative session.

In 2023, California's Proposition 12, the strongest animal protection law in the country, was upheld by the Supreme Court. This proposition required that eggs, pork, and veal sold in California must come from farms that provide animals with enough room to turn around, stand up, and lie down. As a reaction to the passing of this law, the animal agriculture industry called for federal legislation in the Farm Bill similar to the EATS Act which would undo Prop 12 and also control the regulation of state sales, stripping away animal welfare and other mandates. The provisions in the Farm Bill as worded would have reversed years of progress for animals.

Our alert in June 2024 generated over 43,500 letters from over 14,500 In Defense of Animals supporters urging U.S. senators and representatives to oppose language similar to the EATS Act in the proposed Farm Bill and vote NO. 

However, the new FARM Bill failed in Congress and at the last minute, the last agreed upon and enacted FARM Bill was extended another year! A new version will be fought over in the upcoming year to take effect after the extended version expires. We’re thrilled by this outcome but will remain watchful.

Near the end of this year, a dastardly attempt was made to make it simple to knock the legs out from under nonprofits by declaring them to be “terrorist-supporting” without evidence. It was reported both that the bill had passed the House and that it had been blocked. We created an alert aimed at the Senate, while work was being done to change representatives’ minds in the House who had voted for the bill by some other organizations. Looking further into the matter, it appears that proponents of the bill tried to pass it under suspended rules, therefore it would need a ⅔ majority instead of a simple majority to pass which the bill failed to get. Not knowing that this was a bill using suspended rules, many (including us) were led to believe that the bill had passed the House.

We are thrilled to report that the EATS Act, a bad version of the FARM Bill, and the misleadingly named Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (H.R. 9495) have failed in Congress for this two-year session and celebrate this important outcome for animal protection state laws. We must remain vigilant to defeat future attempts over the next two years and beyond.