Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 724, the bipartisan Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, or the PACT Act, introduced by Representative Ted Deutch and Vern Buchanan. In 2017, Pennsylvania passed Libre's Law, which increased penalties for animal abuse. I was honored to help push that legislation over the finish line in the Pennsylvania State Senate. I am proud to once again help pass legislation that will better protect our Nation's animals. In 2010, Congress passed the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act to address the trade in obscene videos of live animals being crushed, burned, or subjected to other forms of heinous cruelty. While this was an important first step, the law only bans the trade in video depictions of cruelty, not the underlying act of cruelty itself. The PACT Act addresses this gap by prohibiting the underlying acts of animal cruelty that occur on Federal property or affect interstate commerce, regardless of whether a video is produced. As a former district judge, I served on the frontlines of our judicial system. I witnessed firsthand the connection between animal cruelty and violence toward people. In fact, the FBI recently recognized that addressing animal cruelty is critical to protecting our communities. The PACT Act would give Federal law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to combat extreme animal cruelty.…”