July 2022 End of Session Report
The regular 2022 Legislative Session came to end in the early hours of the morning on June 4th, three weeks earlier than usual. While the Senate concluded its work in the early hours of Friday, June 3, the Assembly would not finish ploughing through its work for another 24 hours. The truncated session allowed members to return to their districts to campaign as Assemblymembers with primaries go to the polls on June 28, 2022, and many Senators will run primary races in newly configured districts approved by the court on August 23, 2022.
While the Legislature is not scheduled to return until January of 2023, Governor Hochul has proclaimed she stands ready to call a special session should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down New York’s conceal carry law, which requires demonstration of proper cause to carry. This is the requirement the New York Pistol Association is challenging in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
With regard to the HORSEPOWER, Inc Agenda, we advanced several initiatives:
· Performance Enhancing Drug Testing: In early February the Albany Times Union began a six-part series focusing on the racing industry. The first piece featured a story highlighting the fact that the one state lab testing thoroughbreds and standardbreds for performance enhancing drugs was underfunded by $1 million. Upon reading this, HORSEPOWER, Inc., launched into action and began working with the NY State Assembly Racing and Wagering Chair, Gary Pretlow. Assemblymember Pretlow was successful in including the additional funding in the Assembly One House Budget bill, but unfortunately it fell off the table during final negotiations. The rationale being – The recently passed and soon to be enacted Horse Racing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA) will acquire such tasks. While this may be true, the drug testing components of HISA won’t be implemented until 2023.
Components of HISA to be implemented on July1 include concussion protocols for jockeys, restrictions on the use of riding crops, racetrack accreditation and reporting of training and veterinary records and a requirement that everyone in horse racing must register with the new safety agency by the end of this month.
HORSEPOWER will keep up to date on the roll out of HISA, with a particularly keen eye on the implementation of the drug testing phase. Should that piece be pushed out again, we will work with our legislature to fill the gap.
· Auction Bill Introduced! The HORSEPOWER, Inc teamed up with Sue McDonough of the NYS Humane Association and the Assembly Agriculture Committee to draft a follow up bill to our slaughter ban bill passed last year. This initiative addresses the fact that current NYS Statute only calls for a five-dollar fine if an Auction knowingly sells a disabled horse and highlights the fact that every year, thousands of horse auctions are held in the United States, attracting farmers, ranchers, pleasure-horse owners, riding stable operators, and unfortunately - slaughterhouse buyers. The equines run the gamete between healthy young thoroughbreds to broken-down old mules. The healthy ones may be fortunate enough to be purchased as inexpensive riding horses and ponies. However, some are too old, sick, lame, or neglected to be worked in any manner within this state without violating the State law against cruelty to animals. As a result, many of these horses become victims of killer buyers. Horse auctions should not be dumping grounds for unwanted, abused, and neglected animals just because their owners refuse or are unable to provide necessary vet care or humane euthanasia as required by law. This bill recently introduced – S9097 Addabbo / A10065 Pretlow will substantially increase the fines (up to $1,000 and a misdemeanor) if auctioneers accept and sell abused or neglected horses. The fine has not been updated since 1965.
Some horses who are particularly malnourished are purchased by middlemen, who take them home, fatten them up, and return them to the auction for sale at a profit to the kill buyers. These animals may change hands repeatedly before they ultimately end up at the slaughterhouse door. Despite the fact that the last slaughterhouse in the United States shuttered operations in 2007, horse slaughter remains a pernicious and inhumane issue in the U.S. Since 2015, over 350,000 horses have been shipped over our borders to Mexico and Canada for slaughter by “kill buyers.” Such horses are often shipped for more than 24 hours at a time without food, water or rest, and suffer horribly along the way. HORSEPOWER will continue to chip away at all avenues of such abuses.
· AB 5481 / SB 5875 Prohibits the slaughter of ALL horses – In another follow up act to our initial anti- slaughter bill (specific to Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds only), this bill, once enacted, would apply to all horses. It does not prohibit the humane euthanizing of equines but would put an end to any horse being loaded onto a trailer and sent up the Northway for slaughter. While the bill did not pass this year, we did engage with th legislature and begin to educate members. We anticipate the bill will be prioritized next session.
Session Statistics: For those who keep track of such things: Since January 1, 2021, the start of the 2-year term of the Legislature through Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 19,292 bills were introduced. Since January 1, 2022, through June 8, 2022, the Senate passed 1,634 bills, while the Assembly passed 1,245 bills. Of the 1,007 bills that passed both houses this year (the in the last quarter of a century): 214 have been signed into law, 1 have been vetoed, and 793 have not yet been delivered to the Governor. As a comparison, taking into account the same time period, 414 bills passed both houses in 2020 compared to 935 in 2019, 641 in 2018, 606 in 2017, 618 in 2016, 718 bills in 2015, 658 in 2014, and 650 in 2013.