AFIA members meet with congressional staff to discuss animal food industry priorities.American Feed Industry Association
The AFIA delegation included members from its Aquaculture, Pet Food, Equine and Global Affairs committees. They gathered for committee meetings and legislative visits to make their case directly to lawmakers.
“Our committee members bring firsthand experience to conversations about how policy decisions affect the animal food industry,” said Leah Wilkinson, AFIA’s chief policy officer. “By meeting directly with lawmakers, they make the personalized case for policies that support innovation, strengthen supplies of essential ingredients and keep the U.S. animal food industry competitive.”
Members pushed lawmakers to pass the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development (Innovative FEED) Act (S. 1906 / H.R. 2203), which appears in the Senate farm bill. The legislation would modernize how the Food and Drug Administration reviews certain novel animal food ingredients by allowing the agency to use its existing Food Additive Petition process for ingredients that provide non-nutritive benefits such as improved animal health, enhanced food safety or reduced environmental impact.
The delegation also supported language from the Pet Food Uniform Regulatory Reform (PURR) Act of 2025 that’s included in H.R. 8646, the Fiscal Year 2027 Agriculture appropriations bill. The PURR Act language aims to modernize animal food regulation by reducing the current patchwork of state-by-state regulatory requirements for product label reviews.
Members also discussed solutions to reduce U.S. reliance on China for vitamins and amino acids. A November 2025 strategic assessment from the Institute for Feed Education and Research found that critical nutrients affecting animal food, animal protein and the human food supply are overwhelmingly concentrated in one region.
