Federal Bill to Repeal and Replace HISA in Pipeline

A bill that would repeal the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and replace it with a voluntary interstate compact to govern the nation's Thoroughbred, Standardbred, and Quarter Horse racing is about to be introduced in Congress.

The Republican Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins on Tuesday announced his intention to file the Racehorse Health and Safety Act (RHSA).

The bill would establish a governing body known as the Racehorse Health and Safety Organization (RHSO), which would oversee breed-specific Scientific Medication Control Committees tasked with drafting and recommending drug rules for each breed.

There would also be racetrack safety oversight based on existing standards as set forth by both the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and the model rules of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI).

A draft of the pending bill stated that each individual state that wants to join the compact must enact a state law specifically opting in within two years of the bill's passage into federal law.

Each state would decide whether its own racing commission or RHSO got to enforce the new federal rules, which would supersede existing state statutes.

States wouldn't have to opt into RHSO. But the cost of not doing so would jeopardize their racetracks' ability to simulcast out of state.

The draft bill stated that a “host State that is not a member State of the interstate compact is prohibited from allowing interstate transmission of any electronic signal” for betting purposes, including advance-deposit wagering.

Despite the effort to kill HISA, the RHSA bill would retain some similarities to the existing structure that governs America's Thoroughbred industry.

There would still be “covered” horses, races, and licensed personnel. There would still be assessments for each state to pay its share of the costs of federal regulation, although the costs would always be breed-specific, the draft bill stated.

There would also still be a board appointed to oversee the whole thing. But in RHSO's case, five of the directors would be appointed by the state racing commission of each of the five member states that had the greatest number of racing days during the preceding three-year period, with the other four to be appointed by the commissions of the remaining member states.

The National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and the North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians are among entities that have endorsed the pending legislation.

The NHBPA is simultaneously spearheading a 2 1/2-year-old lawsuit that is trying to derail HISA based on anti-constitutionality allegations. A lower federal court has already ruled that HISA is constitutional, and the Sept. 26 announcement of the new legislation comes eight days before the NHBPA will argue for an overturning of HISA before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Doug Daniels, DVM, the president of the NHBPA, praised the pending legislation in a press release that read, in part, “The RHSA is a law that works from the ground up and brings all horseracing industry entities to the table in a collaborative, consensus-driven approach. It's a sensible piece of legislation that will cost horsemen much less than HISA because it will utilize resources already existing in the states. And it will be constitutional and democratic, allowing everyone in the industry to have a voice in the rulemaking process.”

Congressman Higgins said in a press release that the legislation “brings Constitutional liberties and rights to the forefront, protecting the horse racing industry and the beautiful animals that we love.”

Higgins's biography on his official Congressional web page states that he “is widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of Congress.” He grew up on a Louisiana horse ranch.

A former police officer in the same city as Evangeline Downs racetrack, Higgins resigned amid excessive force allegations before embarking on a political career. Since being elected to Congress in 2016, he has been known as an advocate for small government, and the fourth-term representative's stated chief objectives are border security and the enforcement of immigration laws.

But Higgins has also gained notoriety over the years for his controversial–and at times threatening and mocking–social media postings, some of which have run afoul of Facebook's “Violence and Incitement” policies.

Higgins's press release announcing the RHSA bill was accompanied by a headline that referenced his “Fight” against “Federal Overreach” and “Oppressive Mandates.”

Higgins said in his RHSA release that “Government should be a partner to Americans, not a predator.” Yet Higgins didn't elaborate on any allegedly predatorial aspects related to HISA.

Higgins did choose in his statement to politicize recent horse fatalities by blaming HISA for not being able to pinpoint why they happened.

“After [HISA's] full implementation, Churchill Downs Racetrack, home of the [GI] Kentucky Derby, was forced to shut down after twelve horses died in six weeks,” Higgins said. “Despite spending millions, the HISA Authority has failed to identify the cause of the problem.”

A months-long investigative report that the HISA Authority released Sept. 12 attributed the Churchill deaths from this past spring to no common cause. At the same time, the Authority created a multi-pronged “strategic response plan” that it believes will contribute meaningfully to the reduction of future equine fatalities.

In the wake of the RHSA bill's unveiling, Lisa Lazarus, the HISA Authority's chief executive officer, countered with her own statement in defense of her organization's enabling law that read, in part, “HISA is the law of the land and has made significant progress since its implementation began in July 2022. By bringing together stakeholders across racing, HISA has, for the first time, established national, uniform Racetrack Safety rules and a clear, tough and fair Anti-Doping and Medication Control program….

“The racing industry definitively proved over decades that voluntary compacts and state-by-state patchwork regulation do not work,” Lazarus continued. “At a time when I have called for an 'all-hands-on-deck' approach, it is disappointing to see there are still some who would rather throw up roadblocks than come together for the benefit of racing.”

A key plank in the RHSA legislation is that its overseeing entity must justify its decisions with “scientific evidence.”

The draft bill stated that, “In developing proposed scientific medication control rules with respect to a breed of covered horses, to the extent possible, a scientific medication control committee shall use scientific methods [and] take into account the unique characteristics and needs of such breed and its racing performance model, including the varying number and nature of races each year for the breed.”

In addition to having to pass a state law just to opt in to the RHSO, the draft of the bill explained that another condition of being a member will be for each state to enact a law cracking down on “deceptive” horse sales that involve horses that have been administered certain substances.

The draft bill stated each state shall “have in effect a statute that treats as an unfair or deceptive act or practice the sale of a covered horse [if] the seller knows or has reason to know the horse has been administered a bisphosphonate prior to the horse's fourth birthday or any other substance or method the RHSO determines has a long-term degrading effect on the soundness of the covered horse and fails to disclose to the buyer the administration of the bisphosphonate or other such substance or method.”

In more general terms, covered horses may only participate in covered races “if the horse is free from the active pharmacological effect of medications, other foreign substances, and methods that enhance the natural performance of the covered horse,” the draft bill stated.

Covered horses that are “injured or determined by a veterinarian to be unsound may not train or participate in a covered horserace; and the use of medications, other foreign substances, and treatment methods that mask pain in order to allow an injured or unsound covered horse to train or race in a covered horserace shall be prohibited,” the draft bill stated.

Regarding sanctioning, the RHSO may impose upon certain rulebreakers “lifetime bans from horseracing, disgorgement of purses, monetary fines and penalties, and changes to the order of finish in covered races,” the draft bill stated.

With respect to scientific medication control rule violators who want to appeal penalties, there will be “an opportunity to reduce the applicable administrative sanctions that is comparable to the opportunity provided by the Protocol for Olympic Movement Testing of the United States Medication Agency.”

Funding of the RHSO was addressed in the draft bill, but only in very general terms.

“The RHSO, acting through the Board, shall assess an initial fee from each State racing commission of a member State in an amount determined by the Board to be sufficient to cover the startup costs of the racing commission for the first full year that begins after the effective date…” the draft bill stated.

States will get billed–similar to how they are now assessed by HISA–and it will then be up to each state racing commission to determine how it will come up with the money to pay its share.

The draft bill stated this money can come “from a variety of sources, including foal registration fees, sales contributions, starter fees, track fees, and other fees on covered persons.”

The draft bill even included a provision of what is to happen if the RHSO runs in the red.

“The RHSO may incur debt to carry out the duties of the RHSO but may not accept loans from any covered person or equine industry representative,” the draft bill stated.