Yesterday, Congress enacted the federal Farm Bill, including provisions prohibiting animal fighting ventures and limiting the importation of live dogs into the United States if the dogs are younger than six months old and imported for the purpose of resale. President Bush's earlier veto of the bill was overridden when the House of Representatives voted 316-108 on Wednesday, and the Senate voted 82-13 on Thursday to override, easily exceeding the two-thirds majority required of both houses to override a presidential veto.
The override was not without controversy, as a printing mistake left out 34 pages of the vetoed bill that dealt with international food aid and trade. Realizing the mistake of voting for a different version of the bill than what the President had vetoed, the House voted again (306-110) in favor of the complete bill, enough to override another Presidential veto. The Senate is expected to revisit the measure in June if necessary. However, both House and Senate leadership have cited parliamentary precedent regarding such an occurrence as being constitutional and therefore not needing another vote.
Please return to AKC.org for any further developments regarding the Farm Bill.
For more information, contact AKC's Government Relations Department at (919) 816-3720, or e-mail doglaw@akc.org.
Yesterday, Congress enacted the federal Farm Bill, including provisions prohibiting animal fighting…