This is from AHA friend Jade:
I received the message below from Alaskan Congressman Don Young's office today, regarding the HAPPY Act, a bill to create a tax credit for expenses related to pet care. This would allow pet owners to deduct up to $3,500 annually for pet care expenses. It is important legislation, especially now, when the recession is causing people to abandon the pets they can't afford to care for. We must find ways to encourage people to keep their pets, as well as incentives for adopting and caring for companion animals appropriately.
As Congressman Young notes, the bill is currently stalled in the House Committee on Ways and Means. We must get this bill out of committee and onto the floor, where it can be voted on and passed into legislation. YOU CAN HELP DO THAT.
Please go to this web page and use the contact form to ask the committee members to move H.R. 3501, the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act along. Tell the committee that this is an Act that is important to you, that it will help Americans keep their companion animals in this economically troubled time, and that they can not allow it to die in committee. Ask that they support the Act and move it along.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/contact.asp
Then go to this page and check whether or not your Congressional representative is on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Click on the name of your representative and you will be able to go directly to their website and contact information. CALL your representative's office and ask that s/he help move H.R. 3501, the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act, out of committee so that it can be voted on and passed into law.
Last but not least, forward this message to all your contacts - ask your friends, family and co-workers to do the same things you have just done. Politicians understand NUMBERS and we need to make sure these politicians know there are large numbers of voters who want the legislation passed.
For the animals,
Jade Murphy
