We have great news! On September 18, the Senate voted 29-4 (with 4 Senators absent) to pass the bond-or-forfeit bills (SB 293 and SB 294). This is a great show of support for the bills. Thank you for answering our call to action and reaching out to your Senators. We definitely saw the impact of your advocacy!
The next step will be for a Republican sponsor to introduce mirror (duplicate) bills in the House. Those bills will have to go through the committee process and a House floor vote. After passage in the House, one of the Senate bills (with a Democrat sponsor) and one of the House bills (with a Republican sponsor) will be “tie barred,” meaning that the bills will be linked so that neither bill can go into effect unless the other is also enacted. This will create a bipartisan bill package that needs to be negotiated by House and Senate leadership. Once the Senate approves the tie bar, the bills will be transmitted to the Governor’s office for signature.
That’s just a quick snapshot of our strategy going forward. We will continue to keep you posted on the bills’ progress and will let you know when and how you can help us advocate for their passage.
We are going to keep working to improve animal welfare and create a more humane community while serving as a voice for the animals through advocacy. Together, we can continue to make a difference in animals’ lives. If you know someone who you think would be interested in this information, please forward this to them and encourage them to sign up for our Legislative Action Network at https://horizon-lab.news/advocacy/%3C/a%3E.