The Office of Management and Budget concluded its final review of the proposed Horse Protection Rule on Wednesday April 24, 2024. The next step in the process will be for the final rule to be published in the Federal Register. The exact timeline isn’t known but attorneys for the industry assume it will be in the next 30 days.  

The rule did come back from OMB with a status, “Consistent with Change,” meaning OMB did recommend some change to the rule. However, the expectation is that the final rule will contain most, if not all, of what was included in the proposed rule.

The rule will become final when it is published in the Federal Register, however the effective date of the rule and its provisions will be at some point in the future. The proposed rule had 270 days from publishing date as the effective date. That timeline would mean that the rule would not go into effect until the 2025 show season.

The industry commented on the issues in the proposed rule that would be harmful to the industry and will review the final rule to see what, if any, changes were made to the proposed rule. If those changes are not made, the industry will continue on its stated path of challenging the rule in U.S. District Court. As part of that process, it may be necessary for the industry to seek a stay on the effective date of the rule until the District Court renders a decision.