Sponsors (6)
Official title: To protect public health and human safety by prohibiting the farming of mink for their fur, to compensate farmers as they transition out of the industry, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 18, 2025 by Adriano J. Espaillat · Last progress March 18, 2025
The bill trades a nationwide end to mink farming—reducing zoonotic and animal-welfare risks and providing federal buyouts—for significant income loss and compliance costs for mink owners, new federal spending funded by taxpayers, and some reduction in budget scorecard transparency.
Fur farm workers, operators, and nearby communities face lower risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks and related environmental harms because mink farming is ended and permanent easements prohibit future fur operations.
Mink farm owners and operators can receive federal buyout payments that cover compliance costs and the fair-market value of non-land mink-farming assets, with a $100 million Treasury transfer available to pay recipients promptly.
Owners, operators, and regulators gain clearer legal definitions and consistent applicability (including territories and DC), and states/localities can still adopt stricter animal-welfare protections, reducing regulatory uncertainty and enabling local standards.
Mink farm owners and workers lose current and future livelihood options—many will lose income or be forced to close operations, and owners who take buyouts must permanently forfeit the ability to resume fur farming on easemented land.
Operators face steep compliance costs and large penalties: humane-termination requirements within 90 days can impose significant one-time expenses (training, equipment, veterinary services) and civil fines up to $10,000 per day or up to $10,000 per animal for noncompliance.
The $100 million federal buyout is paid by taxpayers and, combined with excluding the Act from PAYGO reporting, increases the risk the program raises federal outlays and long-term deficit pressures without automatic offsets or clear scorecard visibility.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Phases out mink farming (ban after 1 year), mandates humane euthanasia for existing mink, and creates a $100M USDA compensation program for affected farm owners.
Bans the commercial farming of mink in the United States starting one year after enactment, requires all existing farmed mink to be euthanized humanely beginning 90 days after enactment, and creates a USDA program to compensate mink-farm owners for certain compliance costs and the market value of the mink-farming business (excluding land). The law prescribes civil penalties for noncompliance, requires recipients to grant a permanent easement prohibiting future fur farming on the property, and provides $100 million transferred to USDA to fund the compensation program. The Act also directs that its budgetary effects be excluded from routine PAYGO scorecards.