[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 109 (Monday, July 20, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RESTORE OUR AMERICAN MUSTANGS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 20, 2009

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1018, the 
Restore Our American Mustangs Act. This timely legislation would help 
ensure the safety of wild horses and burros while saving the American 
tax payers millions of dollars. This is commonsense legislation that 
will establish a humane process for managing the large population of 
free-roaming horses and burros in the West.
  The American horse is a symbol of the American West, yet we have 
failed to responsibly manage this great animal. The current BLM 
management system consists of forcing these wild horses to roam land 
that is too small to support them and then rounding up excess horses to 
be sold, adopted, or slaughtered. This process is inhumane, 
ineffective, and very expensive.
  This bill will improve our current system in several ways.
  First, the BLM currently rounds up thousands of perfectly healthy 
horses and places them in holding facilities to await adoption or 
slaughter. By strengthening the adoption process and utilizing 
contraception methods, as this bills proposes, we will drastically 
reduce the number of excess horses, thus reducing the need for the 
expensive holding facilities.
  Second, this legislation will close a loop-hole that allows horses 
and burros to be sold for slaughter. While there are no slaughter 
houses in the United States, this loop-hole allows people to buy excess 
horses and ship them to Mexico to be slaughtered. This is clearly not 
the intent of the current law and we must close this shameful loop-
hole.
  Third, this bill will save the tax payer millions of dollars. Holding 
facilities are very expensive. In fact, in 2008 alone, the BLM spent a 
third of its budget, $27 million, on the upkeep and operation of 
holding facilities.
  And finally, this legislation will end the BLM's practice of 
constantly reducing the range size for wild horses and burros. 
Specifically, this bill urges the BLM to restore wild horses to the 
full 19 million public land acres that were originally designated for 
their habitat.
  Mr. Speaker, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act is good 
legislation for both wild horses and tax payers. We must pass this 
legislation and implement these humane policies to protect this symbol 
of the American West.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in the supporting this timely 
legislation.

                          ____________________