A first-termer elected in 2020, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has come on like a storm on animal welfare. We met just days after her election to the House. She immediately expressed her deep inner passion for the voiceless, and she’s stepped up in a very big way and put herself at the center of many of the biggest policy reforms for animals.
Rep. Mace joined with one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress – Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Committee on Appropriations – in introducing the Mink in Narrowly Kept Spaces are Superspreaders Act (MINKS Act), which would phase out mink production in the U.S., as the species has been deemed by scientists and doctors as the number one species most susceptible to COVID-19. Together, they passed an amendment through the House last month that mirrored their bill. Mink have proven to be the number one superspreader of COVID aside from humans, and mink farms have already spawned three new variants of the plague – one of them in the U.S.
While working both sides of the aisle, Mace joined Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Elaine Luria, D-Va., in introducing the FDA Modernization Act, which would eliminate a Depression-era requirement for animal-testing for all new drug development protocols and allow for alternative methods when validated.
Rep. Mace, joined by Nevada Democrat Rep. Dina Titus, also introduced the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, which would create a system of checks and balances, transparency, and accountability in the USDA’s Commodity Checkoff programs that have been ridden with scandal after scandal. These checkoff programs funnel the hard-earned tax dollars of family farmers who adhere to more humane and sustainable animal husbandry practices to slush funds that are used to illegally lobby for policies that harm animals and put farmers out of business, all while lining the pockets of multinational corporations and monopolies like JBS, Smithfield, and Cargill.
Nancy Mace has cosponsored every single animal protection bill that stands a chance of passing this Congress, far too many to list. And she led a bipartisan letter to the U.S. Postal Inspector calling for the USPS to crack down on illegal gamecock shipments to Guam and other U.S. Territories.
In our latest episode of The Animal Wellness Podcast, I join Nancy Mace and host Joseph Grove to discuss these issues and more. We hope you’ll check it out here today!
