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Horseplay on the Hill Ensign's proposal against slaughter houses may be killed
By Benjamin Grove
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Members of a House-Senate panel are quietly planning to
kill legislation designed to stop horse slaughter, sources close to
the process told the Sun this week.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., would ban
federal funding for inspectors at the nation's three slaughterhouses
that process horses for human consumption, which would effectively
shut down the plants. The plants sell the meat overseas.
The House approved the legislation 269-158, and the Senate approved
it 69-28. The provision is part of an agriculture spending bill.
That broader bill is now being finalized by a conference committee of
House and Senate negotiators. Sources have said that several panel
members want to remove the horse provision using parliamentary rules
that could allow them to do it outside a public meeting.
Two of the slaughterhouses are in Texas, the home state of the
committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla.
At Tuesday's meeting, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., a member of the
committee and a strong supporter of Ensign's legislation, demanded
that the provision be removed in public if it is to be removed at
all. But Bonilla rejected that request.
Bonilla was not available after the meeting, nor was his spokeswoman.
Another opponent of Ensign's legislation, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.,
said he supports taking the provision out. When asked if he would
take the action himself, Burns said, "We haven't made the decision
yet."
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said he had supported Ensign's
legislation, but was now inclined to oppose it. He said he has
recently learned that slaughterhouses may get around a law that bans
federal inspectors through a "fee for service" process. And he said
horses will be sent to Mexican and Canadian plants to meet even less
humane fates.
"The slaughter will go on, but it will not produce American jobs or
American income," Bennett said.
He added that farmers are calling his office to ask what they would
do with their old horses, and that zoos were concerned because they
feed U.S. horse meat to their big cats.
Landrieu was livid that the panel's Republican leaders gave
themselves the option of acting outside the view of the public.
"They reserved the right to overturn the will of the majority of the
Congress, and they might do it -- in the dark of night," Landrieu
told the Sun.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said he fully expected that Ensign's
provision will be removed later.
"These guys have become masters at having pretend conferences," Obey
said. "In the end, they go in and do whatever they damn well please."
Ensign, who does not sit on the panel, was unavailable for comment
Tuesday night. Spokesman Jack Finn said he was not surprised that
there may be a movement to strip the language from the bill because
some of its opponents sit on the conference panel.
Ensign still has time to lobby panel members although it is not clear
when the bill will be finalized.
Activists have been lobbying committee members for several weeks,
arguing that the bill will effectively help save U.S. horses from
slaughter.
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