[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12744]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         REGULATING THE RABBIT

  (Mrs. HARTZLER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, Washington bureaucrats are up to their 
old tricks again. They're interfering with how we run our businesses, 
dictating the type of health insurance we have to purchase, and 
stonewalling tax-exempt status based on political speech. Now they're 
going so far as to tell magicians how to do their magic shows.
  Let me introduce you to Marty Hahne. He's an area magician from 
Missouri who's been doing magic shows for children in southern Missouri 
for over 27 years. This summer, he received a chilling letter from the 
Federal Government requiring him to have a license. Not for himself, 
but for his rabbit. The Agriculture Department is interpreting a 
decades-old law on animal exhibitions to now include pet bunnies used 
in magic shows. In order to continue conveying to children that reading 
is magic, he has to not only obtain a license, but also write a 
mandated disaster plan for his rabbit, including provisions for fire, 
floods, tornados, ice storms, and power failures.
  This is just another example of government overreach and loss of 
freedoms in our country. It is time for this to stop. It is time for 
common sense to prevail. It's time for Big Government to leave us 
alone. With the track record of this current administration, that 
really would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

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