Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry.
This bill amends the Animal Welfare Act to ban confining breeding pigs in enclosures that prevent them from lying down, standing, or turning around, and to require at least 24 square feet of usable floor space per breeding pig. It creates exceptions for transportation, veterinary procedures, pre-farrowing five-day period, and slaughter; applies enforcement and penalties under existing Animal Health Protection Act authorities; requires the Secretary to provide financial assistance prioritizing independent producers; and directs a $10,000,000 set-aside from the National Pork Board for two fiscal years.
Animal welfare gains versus regulatory cost and market impacts
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill clearly defines a substantive prohibition on certain confinement practices for breeding pigs and integrates that prohibition into existing statutory frameworks, but it provides only partial operational and fiscal detail for implementing a nationwide change.
This bill amends the Animal Welfare Act to ban confining breeding pigs in enclosures that prevent them from lying down, standing, or turning around, and to require at least 24 square feet of usable floor space per breeding pig.
It creates exceptions for transportation, veterinary procedures, pre-farrowing five-day period, and slaughter; applies enforcement and penalties under existing Animal Health Protection Act authorities; requires the Secretary to provide financial assistance prioritizing independent producers; and directs a $10,000,000 set-aside from the National Pork Board for two fiscal years.
The amendment becomes effective one year after enactment.
Narrow, popular animal welfare aim but imposes nationwide farm standards and compliance costs; modest funding helps but industry and jurisdictional concerns reduce passage odds.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill clearly defines a substantive prohibition on certain confinement practices for breeding pigs and integrates that prohibition into existing statutory frameworks, but it provides only partial operational and fiscal detail for implementing a nationwide change.
Animal welfare gains versus regulatory cost and market impacts
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
Animal welfare gains versus regulatory cost and market impacts
Likely broadly supportive: the bill directly addresses animal welfare harms from gestation crates and aligns with retailer and state trends.
The funding and assistance provisions are welcome but probably seen as too modest.
Enforcement clauses and no-preemption for stricter state/local rules are positive features.
Cautious support: the bill addresses a clear animal welfare issue while including limited financial assistance and exceptions.
Concerns focus on implementation clarity, timeline, enforcement capacity, and whether assistance matches compliance costs.
Would favor modest adjustments to funding, phased compliance, and clearer dates.
Likely opposed: views it as federal regulatory overreach into farming practices that will raise costs.
The small funding allocation does not fully mitigate concerns about compliance burdens, market disruption, and rural impacts.
Prefers market-driven or state-level approaches and a longer transition.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Narrow, popular animal welfare aim but imposes nationwide farm standards and compliance costs; modest funding helps but industry and jurisdictional concerns reduce passage odds.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Animal welfare gains versus regulatory cost and market impacts
Narrow, popular animal welfare aim but imposes nationwide farm standards and compliance costs; modest funding helps but industry and jurisd…
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill clearly defines a substantive prohibition on certain confinement practices for breeding pigs and integrates that prohibition into existing statutory frameworks, but i…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.