By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Update 8/27/21:  the Supreme Court issued an opinion yesterday ending the CDC order which extended the eviction moratorium in areas of substantial and high transmission of COVID-19 until October 3, 2021. The Humane Society family of organizations remains concerned about what this could mean for millions of Americans and their pets and will continue to urge elected officials to pass immediate measures to keep protections in place for these households.

The U.S. House of Representatives is moving forward on more of the bills funding various federal departments, and we are happy to report there are additional boosts for priority animal protection goals. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved bills covering the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Justice, among others.

For the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has released an internal audit of its Animal Care program that licenses and inspects puppy mills that sell to pet stores and online. And the most significant finding is a disturbing one: the auditors found that the program “did not consistently address or adequately document 145 of the 322 complaints we reviewed,” indicating that almost half of the complaints about dog breeders were handled inappropriately, if at all.

One of our primary responsibilities as a leading voice for animals in the nation’s capital is to influence congressional deliberations concerning the annual budgets for federal agencies where animal welfare is in play. We’re off to an outstanding start for 2022! This week, the House Appropriations Committee approved a number of our priority requests in its Fiscal Year 2022 bills covering the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, State, Interior and other agencies.

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