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Animal Enterprise Bill Signed into Law
November 27th 2006, President Bush signed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) into law, ensuring stronger protection for the nation's biomedical researchers. The Senate passed the AETA by unanimous consent September 30th, just before Congress went into recess for the election. The measure then went to the House, which passed it by voice vote on November 13th, the first day of the post-election lame duck session. National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) president, Frankie Trull, hailed the House passage as a "momentous step" and described the bill as "a key milestone on the path to protecting researchers and their families from intimidation and harassment by extremists."
The passage of the AETA comes at a time when escalations in extremist attacks have placed biomedical researchers in considerable danger. In recent years, anti-research extremists have grown more violent and have expanded their targets beyond animal facilities themselves. In some cases they have targeted not only researchers and other employees but also family members and even businesses only marginally associated with animal facilities. The AETA enables federal law enforcement to prosecute violence and threats against persons due to their association with animal research and similar activities.
Opponents claimed that the AETA would have a chilling effect on legitimate protest. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) countered this argument on the House floor by pointing out that the current language of the bill had been revised to address these concerns. He read the section of the bill that specifically exempts First Amendment protected activities and went on to note that the ACLU had withdrawn its earlier opposition. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who had originally opposed the act, said that with the revised language "peaceful conduct is not chilled by the threat of federal prosecution."