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119th Congress Animals

H.R. 1684: PAST Act of 2025

Introduced

  1. Introduced (completed)Feb 27, 2025
  2. Passed House (not reached)
  3. Passed Senate (not reached)
  4. To the President (not reached)
  5. Became law (not reached)

Summary

Introduced in House, Feb 27, 2025

This bill increases protections for horses at shows, exhibitions, sales, or auctions (horse events) to prevent the practice of soring horses. Generally, the soring of horses includes certain actions taken on horses' limbs to produce higher gaits that may cause pain, distress, inflammation, or lameness.

Specifically, the bill expands existing soring prohibitions under the Horse Protection Act, including by banning the use of certain action devices (e.g., nonprotective boots) on specified horse breeds.

The bill also requires soring inspectors at horse events to be assigned by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture rather than appointed by the management of horse events. APHIS must also license, train, and oversee inspectors to detect and diagnose soring at such events.

Read the full summary

Additionally, the bill increases penalties for violations of the act. It also directs APHIS to disqualify horses found to be sore from being shown or exhibited for specified periods. Further, APHIS may permanently disqualify violators from participating in horse events after the third or any subsequent violation.

By way of background, APHIS issued a rule in 2024 to increase efforts to protect horses from soring practices. However, in 2025, a court vacated parts of the rule as exceeding APHIS' statutory authority (e.g., prohibiting the use of certain action devices) while deeming other parts acceptable (e.g., establishing APHIS-designated inspectors). APHIS subsequently delayed the effective date of the rule to December 31, 2026.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Roll calls

0 votes on this bill

No roll call votes have been held on this bill.

Amendments

0 offered

No amendments were offered to this bill.

Cosponsors

207

Bipartisan support.

Who scored on this bill

24 points earned
  1. 1Brian Fitzpatrick R-PA SponsorDrew cross-party cosponsors, reached a cosponsor milestone, introduced5 events+24
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Introductions and cosponsorships count toward weekly caps and show no points.

Other bills by Brian Fitzpatrick

History

  1. Feb 27, 2025Introduced in the House by Brian Fitzpatrick.
Show the full action history (2 actions)
  1. Feb 27, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Feb 27, 2025Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.