Senator Richard Durbin has filed Senate Amendment 3723. Amendment filing is a parliamentary procedure to reserve time during a possible floor debate of a bill. Amendment filing does not constitute actually offering the amendment to the original bill. Sen. Durbin has assured the AKC that he filed this amendment solely for the purpose of reserving time during the floor debate on the 2007 Farm Bill (HR 2419) to publicly discuss issues that were initially raised in the 2005-06 PAWS legislation. The issues addressed by PAWS continue to be of great concern to Sen. Durbin and he would like to highlight them for his Senate colleagues in order to foster continued discussion of these important topics. Sen. Durbin's staff has told our Federal Government Relations Consultant that the amendment will not be formally offered or voted on.
While this amendment does contain language that was initially proposed as part of the PAWS legislation, there are significant differences that AKC has not had an opportunity to evaluate or discuss with Sen. Durbin. Although AKC shares Sen. Durbin's concerns regarding the safety of imported animals and the changing retail marketplace, including internet sales, we believe that these issues would best be debated in the 2008 session as a separate piece of legislation. This would allow all relevant stakeholders to engage in substantive discussion about the most effective and reasonable way to address these issues. We expect to have ample opportunity to discuss any new draft legislation with Sen. Durbin if he decides to proceed with a bill on this topic.
For more information, please contact AKC's Canine Legislation Department at (919) 816-3720, or e-mail doglaw@akc.org.
Senator Richard Durbin has filed Senate Amendment 3723. Amendment filing is a parliamentary…