We recently shared news concerning the U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee’s FY2026 funding bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee has now followed suit, advancing its own version on a 27-0 vote.  

We worked around the clock to communicate our specific concerns to the committee and garner strong congressional support for them, and especially considering the tight budget environment of the moment, we were pleased to see many of our priorities for the USDA maintained, including:

• Existing funding of $37.25 million to enforce the Animal Welfare Act;  
• Further direction on coordination and collaboration between USDA and the Department of Justice to address serious violations of the AWA;  
• Direction for USDA to prioritize enforcement of its 2013 rule regarding online dog and other pet dealers, to ensure that those selling directly to the public over the Internet are properly licensed and inspected under the AWA;
• Existing funding of $3.5 million and helpful directives for the Horse Protection Act for enforcement of the current federal law against horse soring;  
• A longstanding provision to prevent horse slaughter operations, which has blocked horse slaughter on American soil for nearly two decades;
• Existing funding of $3 million for the Protecting Animals with Shelter (PAWS) grants, to provide transitional sheltering options for domestic violence survivors fleeing with pets;  
• Direction to maintain at least the current level of staff time dedicated to enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act; and
• Existing funding of $10 million for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, to encourage veterinarians to locate in underserved areas.  

With respect to the FDA and the advancement of non-animal methods, the Senate funding package includes:

• Nearly identical language to that of the House encouraging the FDA's increased use of non-animal methods to provide “cost-effective, reliable, and human-relevant advances” for safety and efficacy testing of pharmaceuticals;
• Direction to revise regulations to make clear that animal toxicology tests are not required to support clinical testing in humans, a request that aligns with a petition we submitted to the FDA in 2024;  
• A requirement for an Agriculture Research Service report on ways the FDA can transition away from animal use; and  
• An additional $2 million for cosmetics regulation implementation under the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, which reaffirms that animal testing should not be used for the purposes of safety testing on cosmetics products.

Given the immense good such laws have generated, we are glad to relay that there is no language in this package aimed at overturning state-level animal welfare laws like California’s Proposition 12. Nor does this funding bill target the Horse Protection Act rule for which we have strongly advocated.  

Regrettably, the House version does contain problematic report language relating to these two issues. It also doesn’t provide full funding for the Horse Protection Act or PAWS. On these issues, you can help make a difference. Both bills now await consideration by the full House and Senate in their respective chambers before moving on to negotiations for a final package. Please reach out to your elected federal officials to support the funding levels and directives we have highlighted using this link!