Congress orders agriculture department to assess screwworm threat.
H.R. 3806 — New World Screwworm Preparedness Act of 2025 · Filed by Mónica De La Cruz (R-TX) · 18 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to study and report on U.S. preparedness against the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that infests livestock, wildlife, and rarely humans. The study must assess current threat levels, sterile-fly production capacity, surveillance systems, emergency response plans, research needs, and international cooperation—then recommend legislative and administrative improvements within 6 months.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a directed study and report on preparedness against a specific agricultural pest. It creates no new programs, appropriations, or regulatory authority—only a fact-finding and recommendation process.
What the text implies
- Study findings may inform future appropriations requests for sterile-fly production facilities or surveillance infrastructure, potentially creating budget pressure in subsequent fiscal years.
- International cooperation recommendations could lead to bilateral or multilateral agreements affecting trade, border protocols, or shared research funding with Mexico and other affected countries.
- Stakeholder consultation requirement may amplify livestock industry influence over future policy, as producers and industry associations are explicitly named as consultees.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill mandates a comprehensive assessment of biosecurity and disease-prevention infrastructure with no direct costs to citizens and potential long-term protection of livestock, food supply stability, and public health. It creates transparency and accountability by requiring a public report and stakeholder consultation.
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), House Committee on Agriculture, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)
Where it stands
18 cosponsors: 18 Republicans.
- Jun 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 27 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mónica De La Cruz, the sponsor, reported $774,099 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council — $0 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 7, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,829 characters) on Aug 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 7, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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