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House Committee Advances SAFE Act (28) Transport Ban in Major Step Toward Ending Horse Slaughter Pipeline

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In a pre-dawn session on Capitol Hill, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced a sweeping surface transportation reauthorization bill that quietly carries a major victory for the horse industry: a bipartisan amendment that would ban transporting horses for slaughter. The Van Drew-Titus amendment to the Build America 250 Act, H.R. 8870, mirrors the language of the Save America's Forgotten Equines Act, better known across the industry as the SAFE Act. That underlying horse protection bill currently boasts 229 cosponsors in the House, reflecting rare cross-party agreement on a contentious animal welfare issue.

Along with banning the shipment of horses to slaughter, the amendment would also prohibit the use of double-decker trailers for transporting horses—equipment widely criticized by veterinarians and welfare experts as dangerous and inhumane for equines. The broader transportation bill now heads to the House floor for a full vote before eventually moving to the Senate.

Despite a long-standing de facto ban on domestic horse slaughter—achieved by blocking federal funding for plant inspections—tens of thousands of American horses still leave the country each year for killing in foreign slaughterhouses. Last year alone, more than 25,000 horses were trucked from the U.S. to Canada or Mexico, often traveling long distances in crowded conditions and facing what advocates describe as a cruel and painful end.

The original draft of the transportation bill did not include a slaughter transport ban. In the days and hours leading up to the committee markup, Cummings and Heyde led an all-out effort to build a broad coalition from across the Thoroughbred landscape—sales companies, breeders, owners, aftercare groups, and racing organizations—urging lawmakers to support the Van (29) Drew-Titus Amendment (28). That last-minute show of unity from key industry constituencies is being credited with pushing the measure past the finish line in committee.

For now, horsemen and aftercare advocates have a real opening, but the work is far from finished. Industry participants who support ending the slaughter pipeline are being urged to contact their U.S. Representative and ask them to vote in favor of H.R. 8870, the Build America 250 Act, with the horse transport language intact when it comes before the full House—and to continue pressing Senators to keep that protection in place as the bill moves across the Capitol.

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