The appropriations rider is the annual safeguard that blocks federal funds from being used to send healthy, unadopted animals down that pathway.

The FY2027 President’s budget proposal reportedly omits the longstanding bipartisan rider that prevents federal funds from being used to kill healthy, unadopted wild horses and burros or sell them into slaughter. This annual protection was included in FY2026 and enacted in Public Law 119-74, but it must be renewed every year. As of May 15, 2026, Congress has not yet publicly confirmed the rider in FY2027 House or Senate Interior-Environment appropriations text. Please urge appropriators to include the full anti-slaughter and no-commercial-sale rider in the FY2027 Interior-Environment appropriations bill.