Montana Senator Max Baucus is asking his U.S. Senate colleagues to pass an agriculture appropriations bill that could fund USDA horsemeat inspections at domestic processing plants. But some equine welfare advocates believe certain factors could prevent the bill from passing through the Senate intact.

Prior to 2005, USDA personnel carried out food safety inspections at horse processing plants in the U.S. In 2008 Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections, but USDA personnel continued to carry out those inspections on a fee-for-service basis until 2007 when a federal court judge ruled against the arrangement. The combination of the funding prohibition and the court decision resulted in the decline of the horse processing industry in the U.S.

Language stripping the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections did not appear in the original House Agricultural Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012. In response, Virginia Congressman Jim Moran introduced an amendment prohibiting the use of federal revenue to pay the salaries or expenses of USDA personnel to conduct horsemeat inspections at horse processing plants located in the U.S. On May 31, House Appropriations Committee members passed the Moran amendment.

However no such amendment was included in the Senate’s Agricultural Appropriations bill for fiscal 2012. Though the Senate bill does not contain specific language to fund USDA horsemeat inspections, the bill as it stands could allow horsemeat inspection funding to be allocated