Heinrich Legislation to Combat New World Screwworm Passes Senate

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and the Food and Drug Administration, announced that his Stop the Screwworms With Active Readiness and Mitigation (SWARM) Act, legislation he co-led with U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) to combat the New World screwworm (NWS), was signed into law. It was enacted as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (VA) Appropriations Bill.

Specifically, Heinrich's SWARM Act will require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary to submit a report to Congress within 30 days detailing the government's preparedness for potential NWS outbreaks in the United States. The report must cover domestic readiness plans, including building production facilities and state and/or industry partnerships, sterile fly production technology and other eradication methods, and analysis of the advantages and challenges of domestic versus international sterile fly production.

The text of the bill is here.

In August, Heinrich released a statement welcoming the USDA's announcement that it will begin construction on a new domestic sterile fly production facility to combat the growing NWS outbreak in Central America that threatens to spread and wreak havoc on the U.S. cattle industry.

In June, Heinrich welcomed a USDA announcement of a sterile fly dispersal facility, which came on the heels of his introduction of the Strengthening Tactics to Obstruct the Population of Screwworms (STOP Screwworms) Act with U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Cornyn. The legislation authorizes funds for and directs the USDA to begin construction on new sterile fly production and dispersal facilities to combat the spread of the NWS.

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