Over 60 Institutions Sign Letter to Congress Supporting H.R. 3136

Today, NABR delivered a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives announcing support for H.R. 3136.  This letter, signed by over 60 universities, scientific societies, associations, and companies, urges immediate passage of this important transparency improving legislation.

The Enforcement Transparency Act (H.R. 3136) would require the USDA to release the guidelines used by Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES) at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the formulation of any civil penalties for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

This common-sense, bipartisan bill will provide the research community and the public a much greater understanding of how penalties are calculated for enforcement actions by USDA.  Currently, USDA subjectively determines AWA penalties on a case-by-case basis, and the results are unpredictable and inconsistent. These guidelines were once publicly available, but in recent years USDA has chosen to deny the research community and Members of Congress access to them. The last available AWA penalty guidelines are now outdated.

To read NABR's talking points on the ETA, please click here.

Please contact your Congressman TODAY and urge him or her to cosponsor and support H.R. 3136.  Click here to use NABR's Capwiz system to send an email directly to their offices and please encourage your friends, family, and coworkers to do the same.