Back in July, Rep Slotkin (D,MI) introduced HR 9182, the Avian Influenza Research and Response Act. The bill would require USDA to establish a dairy biosecurity education and training program, expand appropriations for research on national or regional problems, and add highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to the list of zoonotic diseases qualifying for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The bill would authorize $5 million per year through 2029 for the biosecurity education and training program.
Moving Forward
Slotkin and her two cosponsors {Rep Valadao (R,CA) and Rep Caraveo (D,CO)}, are members of the House Agriculture Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Other than the one relatively minor authorization increase, I see nothing in the bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would have some level of bipartisan support, but whether that support would be sufficient to see the bill considered by the Full House under the suspension of the rules process. In the waning days of the 118th Congress, a better move may be to have the bill’s language included in the 2025 Farm Bill which has yet to be considered by the House.
Commentary
It is somewhat disappointing to not see supplemental funding
for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to allow that agency
to further expand dairy herd testing for the presence of H5N1 infections and
dairy worker surveillance testing. Unfortunately, given the general Republican
resistance to mandatory medical testing of any sort, such supplemental funding
probably would have provided a focus for organized opposition to the bill.
For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my
article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/148571067/share-center
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