AFTER Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1378 To amend the Animal Welfare Act to allow for the retirement of certain animals used in Federal research, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 27, 2021 Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. PETERS, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Ag- riculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To amend the Animal Welfare Act to allow for the retirement of certain animals used in Federal research, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal Freedom from 4 Testing, Experiments, and Research Act of 2021’’ or the 5 ‘‘AFTER Act of 2021’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1378 IS SEC. 2. PLACEMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN FEDERAL RE- 1 SEARCH. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 14 of the Animal Welfare 3 Act (7 U.S.C. 2144) is amended to read as follows: 4 ‘‘SEC. 14. STANDARDS FOR FEDERAL FACILITIES. 5 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 6 ‘‘(1) ANIMAL RESCUE ORGANIZATION.—The 7 term ‘animal rescue organization’ means a nonprofit 8 organization the purpose of which is to rescue cov- 9 ered animals and find permanent adoptive homes for 10 those animals. 11 ‘‘(2) ANIMAL SANCTUARY.—The term ‘animal 12 sanctuary’ means a nonprofit organization that— 13 ‘‘(A) is registered with the Secretary; 14 ‘‘(B) operates a place of refuge in which— 15 ‘‘(i) a covered animal is provided care 16 for the lifetime of the animal; and 17 ‘‘(ii) an unescorted public visitation of 18 that animal is not permitted; 19 ‘‘(C) does not engage in commercial trade 20 of covered animals; 21 ‘‘(D) does not breed covered animals; 22 ‘‘(E) does not permit direct contact be- 23 tween the public and covered animals; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1378 IS ‘‘(F) does not allow the use of a covered 1 animal for performance or exhibition purposes; 2 and 3 ‘‘(G) does not conduct or permit research 4 on a covered animal other than noninvasive be- 5 havioral research. 6 ‘‘(3) ANIMAL SHELTER.—The term ‘animal 7 shelter’ means a facility that— 8 ‘‘(A) accepts or seizes covered animals— 9 ‘‘(i) to care for the animals; 10 ‘‘(ii) to place those animals in a per- 11 manent adoptive home; or 12 ‘‘(iii) for purposes of law enforcement; 13 and 14 ‘‘(B) does not— 15 ‘‘(i) engage in commercial trade of 16 covered animals; 17 ‘‘(ii) breed covered animals; 18 ‘‘(iii) allow the use of a covered ani- 19 mal for performance or exhibition pur- 20 poses; or 21 ‘‘(iv) conduct or permit research on a 22 covered animal other than noninvasive be- 23 havioral research. 24 ‘‘(4) COVERED ANIMAL.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1378 IS ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘covered 1 animal’ means an animal that is unwanted, 2 abandoned, or otherwise in need of placement 3 in a home. 4 ‘‘(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘covered 5 animal’ does not include— 6 ‘‘(i) a rat of the genus Rattus; or 7 ‘‘(ii) a mouse of the genus Mus. 8 ‘‘(5) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—The term 9 ‘nonprofit organization’ means an organization de- 10 scribed in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue 11 Code of 1986 and exempt from taxation under sec- 12 tion 501(a) of that Code. 13 ‘‘(6) SUITABLE FOR RETIREMENT.—The term 14 ‘suitable for retirement’ means, with respect to an 15 animal, that the animal has been evaluated by a li- 16 censed veterinarian and is determined to be mentally 17 and physically healthy. 18 ‘‘(b) LABORATORY ANIMAL FACILITIES AND EXHIBI- 19 TORS.— 20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para- 21 graph (2), any department, agency, or instrumen- 22 tality of the United States that operates laboratory 23 animal facilities or exhibits animals shall comply 24 with the standards and other requirements promul- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1378 IS gated by the Secretary under subsections (a), (g), 1 (h), and (i) of section 13. 2 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—A department, agency, or 3 instrumentality of the United States that operates 4 laboratory animal facilities shall not be required to 5 comply with the standards and other requirements 6 promulgated by the Secretary under section 13(g) in 7 the case of transporting a chimpanzee that has been 8 used, or was bred or purchased for use, in research 9 conducted or supported by a Federal agency to an 10 animal sanctuary or into the sanctuary system es- 11 tablished under section 404K of the Public Health 12 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 283m). 13 ‘‘(c) RETIREMENT.— 14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 15 after the date of enactment of the AFTER Act of 16 2021, any department, agency, or instrumentality of 17 the United States operating a Federal research facil- 18 ity shall, after public notice and comment, promul- 19 gate regulations that, with respect to any animal of 20 the facility that is no longer needed for research and 21 determined to be suitable for retirement— 22 ‘‘(A) facilitate and encourage the adoption 23 of the animal by, or placement of the animal 24 with— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1378 IS ‘‘(i) an animal rescue organization, 1 animal sanctuary, animal shelter, or indi- 2 vidual who intends to keep the animal as 3 a pet; or 4 ‘‘(ii) in the case of a nonhuman pri- 5 mate, an animal sanctuary; and 6 ‘‘(B) to the maximum extent practicable, 7 collaborate with appropriate nonprofit organiza- 8 tions to carry out subparagraph (A). 9 ‘‘(2) NATIONAL PLACEMENT.—The regulations 10 promulgated to carry out paragraph (1)(A) shall in- 11 clude consideration of placing animals with the enti- 12 ties described in that subparagraph that are located 13 beyond the immediate geographic vicinity of the 14 Federal research facility at which the animal being 15 retired is located. 16 ‘‘(3) TRANSPORT OF CHIMPANZEES.—The regu- 17 lations promulgated to carry out paragraph (1)(A) 18 shall not prohibit or otherwise prevent the transport 19 of a chimpanzee that has been used, or was bred or 20 purchased for use, in research conducted or sup- 21 ported by a Federal agency to an animal sanctuary 22 or into the sanctuary system established under sec- 23 tion 404K of the Public Health Service Act (42 24 U.S.C. 283m). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1378 IS ‘‘(d) EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS.—Nothing in this sec- 1 tion shall— 2 ‘‘(1) preempt any State or local law relating to 3 the adoption or placement of animals used in re- 4 search that is more stringent than the requirements 5 of this section; 6 ‘‘(2) prohibit the transport of a chimpanzee 7 that has been used, or was bred or purchased for 8 use, in research conducted or supported by a Fed- 9 eral agency to an animal sanctuary or into the sanc- 10 tuary system established under section 404K of the 11 Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 283m); or 12 ‘‘(3) prevent a State or unit of local government 13 from adopting or enforcing an animal welfare law 14 that is more stringent than this section.’’. 15 (b) TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.—Section 13 of the 16 Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2143) is amended— 17 (1) by redesignating subsections (g) and (h) as 18 subsections (h) and (i), respectively; and 19 (2) by redesignating the second subsection (f) 20 (relating to the certification requirement for the de- 21 livery of any animal) as subsection (g). 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:57 May 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1378.IS S1378 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS