Action item in red text, scroll down.

The Appropriations debate for fiscal year 2026 is underway. Fiscal 2026 begins October 1. 

Earlier this month the White House (WH) released a “skinny budget” that was basically a spreadsheet with very little information. We wrote and article that included some of your questions, HERE. At that time there was very little we could tell you that was concrete.

Yesterday, the White House released the “Appendix” to the “skinny budget.” This document gives us more insight. However, the format used for the actual budget request is “not normal.” The “White House Budget Request” is typically made up of numerous documents including: The Whitehouse Budget Request, Analytical Perspectives, Appendix, A Federal Credit Supplement and more. You can find past White House Budget Requests to compare them with what we are seeing now.  https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/budget

Please remember the White House Budget Request is NOT the final bill. The final bill is a long way off. The House must craft a draft and the Senate as well. Committee members will craft bills, amend bills and then floor debates will amend them further. The White House Request sets the tone. (More HERE)

Let’s do the clear “good news” first: The WH request maintains the prohibition against using funding for USDA horse meat inspection. To be clear, a member of Congress could try to undo that in debates as the bill is being crafted. However, the fact that funding remains prohibited in the WH request is a good sign it will not be in the final bill.

Note: There is still no prohibition against shipping live animals for the purpose of slaughter and the SAFE Act remains an important bill equine advocates need to continue to push. See more HERE. You can also send a letter to your House and Senate Representatives by simply clicking HERE. 

Marietta

When it comes to the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program the language remains vague and the signs are “not good.”

Request: $106,676,000 for the wild horse and burro program, as authorized by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, Public Law 92–195, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.)

There is no language anywhere in the Appendix to prohibit the outright killing or sales without limits (slaughter) of wild horses and burros.

Without that language, language included by every President except this one, the fight for their lives is now in the hands of Congress as they draft the line items for the bill. 

Chart of program expenses for fiscal year 2024. You can see the breakdown of expenses (note how little is spent on planning it registers as 0%)

Even before the BLM “2020 Plan” was formalized it was running full steam (Path Forward) and more wild horses and burros were captured than at any time in the history of the program. This had led to the ballooning of holding costs for captives that have paid the price for BLM running a broken program to reach a national low number of slightly more than 16,000 wild horses and burros left on the land (or AML). Historically the program uses very little to create fair planning and was to keep wild horses/burros on the range (zero dollars spent repatriating zeroed out areas that total nearly 20 million acres) and have ballooned the captive population to exceeding the population left in the wild. (Sorry, we digress.)

There is no language anywhere in the Appendix to prohibit the outright killing or sales without limits (slaughter) of wild horses and burros. There is language prohibiting the use of funds for horse meat inspection. So the knowledge that explicit prohibition language is needed to accomplish the administrations directive is in the proposed budget (on many subjects).

The Wild Horse and Burro Program is expected to cut the budget by a third without any language that prohibits simple disposal under the most gruesome extremes. 

As a knee-jerk reaction (or simply a desperate desire for “good news”) might lead some of you to think this means “no roundups.” That is not what that means. There is no talk, chatter, rumor, language written anywhere that would indicate BLM should “take a pause” and assess.

There are some other areas in the budget where we can see funds being transferred to facilitate removals like the new US Wildland Fire Service that seems to have a lot of funding that could transfer over (page 165, $175 million designated, not to fight fire, but to do targeted grazing and other “preventative” projects). A preventative measure could also be removing horses (under current guidelines). Funds appropriated to the Forest Service can be transferred to the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, “for removal, preparation, and adoption of excess wild horses and burros from National Forest System lands, and for the performance of cadastral surveys to designate the boundaries of such lands.” (page 186). But that is pretty much all we can find (we are still reviewing the document).

Hotshot (electric prod) still being used to speed up loading (on the face and neck of yearlings in this particular picture) Nothing in the White House Budget request addresses ongoing abuse.

Back in February we began to ask you to make one simple call: Public lands must be left in the public domain and not given away or sold. Wild horses and burros on the range and in holding must not be killed or sold to slaughter.

We have created a very fast and simple letter you can send directly to your lawmakers. 

Click HERE to send a letter to your lawmakers. 

You can also call your representatives in Congress. The number for the switchboard is: (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your representative. The operator will ask where you live and connect you. 

You can say:

I am calling about the Appropriations 2026 bill for the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program. As a constituent I am calling to urge you to ensure language to prohibit funding for the purposes of killing healthy wild horses or burros or selling them without limits (slaughter) is maintained in the Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026. 

We knew we would see a repeat of the strong-arm tactic of threatening to kill our captive wild ones. In preparation we have done several articles. This one addresses alternatives… see more HERE. 

We continue to battle out issues involving on-range management and abuse during capture and in holding.

Can you please take action on this important item and make sure your lawmakers know that the American public will not stand for killing our wild horses and burros or selling them to slaughter. If enough people speak out, maybe Congress will think about midterm elections and that this is an issue that could cost them their seat?

All of our work is only possible with your support. 

Your support keeps our teams in the field, our investigations running and our litigation alive. Together, we will take a strong stand to defend our precious wild ones.