Horse processing will not take place in the United States now that both houses of Congress have passed a comprehensive funding bill that strips the USDA of funding to carry out horsemeat inspections at domestic slaughter plants.

Prior to 2007, USDA personnel carried out horsemeat inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2007, Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding required to pay personnel conducting such inspections at the last two operational domestic equine processing plants. Since then, horses have been exported to plants in Mexico and Canada for processing.

Federal funding bills continued to include language denying funding for horsemeat inspections until 2011, when Congress passed an appropriations bill that failed to contain language specifically forbidding the USDA from using federal dollars to fund horse slaughter plant inspections. Shortly after that bill became law, horse processing plants were proposed in New Mexico, Missouri, and elsewhere; however none of those plants became operational.

On Jan. 13, Appropriations Committee leaders of both the U.S. House and Senate released their consolidated appropriations bill, the "Omnibus Bill of 2014." Section 745 of that bill strips the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections