The Powerball jackpot has grown to an estimated $638 million for Monday night’s drawing after no jackpot winner on Saturday night.

This is the 10th largest Powerball jackpot in the games history – and the third largest prize this year.

The Powerball jackpot rolled Saturday night after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn – white balls 8, 11, 19, 24, 46 and red Powerball 5. The Power Play multiplier was 2X.

The Saturday drawing produced more than 1.2 million winning tickets across the country, including two tickets sold in Arizona and Washington that matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes.

Ten tickets won $100,000, and 63 tickets won $50,000 prizes.

The upcoming drawing on Monday night will be the 26th drawing in the jackpot run.

The Powerball jackpot was previously won on July 19, when a ticket in California matched all five white balls and the red Powerball to win a $1.08 billion jackpot – the game’s third prize to ever reach the billion-dollar mark.

If a player wins the jackpot on Monday night, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize worth an estimated $638 million or a lump sum payment estimated at $304.2 million. Both prize options are before taxes. If the winner selects the annuity option, they will receive one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5 percent each year.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play.

Tickets are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m.

All Virginia Lottery profits go to K-12 education in Virginia. In Fiscal Year 2023, the lottery raised more than $867 million for K-12 education, making up approximately 10 percent of Virginia’s total K-12 school budget.

The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

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By Paxton Smith and Sylvia Ghazarian

In a few short weeks many of us will return to college or university. As a junior, I know firsthand the time pressures we face. Classes start early in the morning and some don’t end until 10 pm. Not to mention the sleepless nights writing papers and studying for exams. It’s an exciting – but busy time with barely enough time to eat and little time to prepare for the unexpected.

College is not a 9-to-5 job. Our personal lives and our school lives are deeply integrated, with many of us living on campus or walking distance from it, but only a few campuses have 24-hour access stores open for when we have an urgent need. That’s where vending machines come in, providing snacks, sodas, and yes, even contraceptives.

As a college junior, my friends and other students understand that in the quest for broader access to contraception, vending machines have emerged as a progressive and innovative solution, empowering individuals with greater control over their reproductive health choices. As advocates and federal officials champion broader contraceptive access, the presence of vending machines (which are available 24/7) selling Plan B, condoms, and other essential health products like ibuprofen and pregnancy tests is proving to be a critical lifeline, particularly for students facing the dilemma of choosing a college in a state where abortion is banned and/or the college is located in areas that lack access to reproductive health centers – contraceptive desserts.

In recent years, the fight for reproductive rights has reached a pivotal juncture, with state-level restrictions on abortion and limited access to contraception threatening to undermine hard-won advancements. Recognizing the urgent need for proactive measures, advocates have been tirelessly advocating for solutions that provide individuals with the tools to take charge of their reproductive choices. Vending machines, placed strategically on college campuses and in public spaces, have emerged as a discreet and accessible option to meet these needs.

Moreover, vending machines do more than just provide access; they foster a culture of empowerment and destigmatization. Their public placement not only helps elimate barriers to contraceptives, but also prompts a more open dialogue surrounding sexual health. Despite public placement, however, their very nature allows anonymous purchase of reproductive health products because there’s no cashier. Taking unnecessary interaction out of the access equation helps to reduce the shame and embarrassment that some individuals may feel when seeking out these essential items.

There are now 39 universities in 17 states with emergency contraceptive vending machines, and at least 20 more considering them, according to the American Society for Emergency Contraception. We can thank a number of advocates and organizations for that, including Emergency Contraception for Every Campus (EC4EC), a by-student-for-student organization.

Many of the efforts for the vending machines are student led. We understand our needs more than anyone can, and these vending machines not only help meet our access needs, being open at all times and in central locations, but they also help meet our cost needs. The beauty of a school owned and operated vending machine is that the school can choose the price of products. In the vending machines across the country already, emergency contraception is often sold at a fraction of the price of what drug stores would sell it for. If a school chooses not to fund or subsidize the items in the vending machines, students could potentially work with local reproductive health nonprofits to keep the machines stocked with menstrual products, emergency contraception, and hopefully in early 2024 the new over the counter birth control pill. Ideally the school will take up the responsibility for these vending machines, serving as tangible manifestations of an institution’s commitment to its students’ well-being and reproductive health.

It is vital to acknowledge that vending machines alone cannot address the systemic challenges faced by the reproductive rights movement. Broader access to contraception and abortion requires comprehensive policy changes and legislative efforts that extend far beyond college life. Nevertheless, vending machines serve as a practical and impactful step in the right direction, offering immediate assistance to individuals seeking reproductive health products without judgment or obstacles.

To make vending machines a ubiquitous resource, colleges and universities must take the lead in adopting and promoting this initiative. By partnering with reproductive rights organizations and health providers, institutions can ensure that vending machines are well-stocked, easily accessible, and affordable across campuses. Additionally, public awareness campaigns can be launched to dismantle any lingering stigma surrounding the use of vending machines for obtaining contraceptives and other reproductive health products.

Vending machines selling Plan B, condoms, and other health products represent a powerful stride forward in the battle for broader access to contraception and reproductive health choices. As students grapple with the impact of abortion bans in their life, these machines provide a much-needed lifeline of support and empowerment. By advocating for the installation of vending machines on college campuses and beyond, we take a meaningful step towards creating a society where individuals can make informed choices about their reproductive health without unnecessary barriers.

Paxton Smith is a pop musician, abortion rights activist, and a UT Austin college junior. She currently serves on the board of directors at WRRAP. Sylvia Ghazarian is executive director of the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project (WRRAP) and works with and mentors students.

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By Shabtai Shavit and Alon Ben-Meir

As Israel prepares for the parliamentary election in September, its second in five months, most national security experts, politically savvy individuals, and academics suggest that this election may well be the most critical since the year 2000. Since that time, the geopolitics and regional security have changed dramatically, which could lead either to regional conflagration or peace, which largely depends on who the next Israeli prime minister will be and the general political leaning of the new government.

There is a growing consensus among Israelis that if Prime Minister Netanyahu forms the next government, Israel will lose a historic opportunity to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement based on a two-state solution, in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

The question is, how to deprive Netanyahu and his Likud party of winning a relative majority that will allow him to form the next right-wing government—a government which would dangerously escalate regional tensions and forfeit any prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace for the foreseeable future.

The answer is that if Kahol Lavan (Blue and White Party), which was established last April and led by Gantz and Lapid, put the country’s national interests first by ending their personal squabbles, articulating a unity of purpose, and focusing only on national security – where they have an overwhelming advantage over Netanyahu – it can potentially defeat a Likud Party led by Netanyahu and form the next government.

Netanyahu, who is now the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the state, has skillfully made his name synonymous with Israel’s national security. It is true that he has contributed to making Israel a regional power, but he failed to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace, which would provide the ultimate security for the state. Instead, he resorted to fearmongering, persuading a majority of Israelis that the Palestinians cannot be trusted and that a Palestinian state will pose the greatest menace to Israel’s long-term national security.

Now, Netanyahu is running again using the same sinister technique of fearmongering, presenting himself as “Mister Security” who alone can save the country from a perilous future. After serving 11 consecutive years as prime minister, however, Netanyahu has become ever more power-hungry and corrupt. He faces possible charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in connection with three cases. He is now fighting for his political life, hoping that his re-election will spare him from facing up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

As such, Netanyahu has now become a greater liability than an asset to Israel’s security. His vow to never to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under his watch and his leaning toward the annexation of the West Bank will render Israel nothing short of a garrison and apartheid state living by the gun, which is to Israel’s detriment as an independent democratic state with a sustainable Jewish majority.

This is particularly worrisome at a time when the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, have openly allied themselves with Israel against their common enemies — Iran and Global Jihad/Radical Islam — and clearly indicated their willingness to forge peace with Israel, once an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is achieved.

Kahol Lavan must now seize the unprecedented opportunity to deny Netanyahu another term by assuming the mantra of national security. They should dramatically change Israel’s trajectory toward peace with the Palestinians, even though they are avoiding speaking about a two-state solution which most of them privately embrace, provided that Israel’s security is not compromised now or at any time in the future.

Although Israel can militarily defeat any country or a combination of countries in the region, Israel has legitimate reasons to be concerned about its national security, which is embedded in the psyche of every Israeli. These concerns can be traced back to the Holocaust, decades of enmity from the Arab states, Iran and its surrogates’ (Hezbollah and Hamas) continuing existential threats, terrorism, and future uncertainty given the region’s instability and power rivalries.

By embracing national security, they entertain unquestionable superiority in matters of security over Netanyahu, which is a prerequisite to any peace. Lieutenant General Gantz and his colleagues, former Defense Minister and Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon and Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi have the credentials and enjoy tremendous credibility in safeguarding the country’s national security.

What is critically important, however, is that Israel’s ultimate national security rests on a permanent peace with the Palestinians. In any peace talks, they will insist that every measure must be taken to ensure the security of the state, without compromising the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that fully cooperates with Israel on all security matters.

The shifting political dynamic in the region, in addition to Egypt and Jordan’s peace with Israel, is that the majority of the Sunni Arab states recognize that Israel is the region’s superpower, with the most advanced technology, which these states desire. But above all, Israel’s military prowess provides the ultimate shield to protect them from Shiite Iran.

To be sure, Israel faces a critical crossroad and the stakes have never been higher. The leaders of Kahol Lavan stand an excellent chance to garner a relative majority and form a new coalition government with the center and left-of-center parties.

According to almost all polls, a majority of Israelis fully support the two-state solution. They want to be assured, however, that the state’s security will not be compromised with the creation of a Palestinian state but rather enhanced, especially if an Israeli-Palestinian peace is achieved in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, as part of the new Middle East which is being built in front of our eyes.

Kahol Lavan, together with a block of the center-left parties, have a historic opportunity to realize it.

Shabtai Shavit is a former Director of Mossad. Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

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The Child Care Stabilization Act would extend vital child care funding which is set to expire at the end of September 2023.

Funding would ensure that child care providers can keep doors open and continue serving children and families in every part of the United States.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Bernie Sanders of Vermont in introducing the legislation. Without additional funding for child care, 88,265 children in Virginia will lose child care, at least 2,861 child care workers will lose jobs, parents will lose $280 million in earnings after being forced to cut work hours or leave the workforce, and 1,383 child care programs would close.

“The lack of affordable child care in America is holding our families, workers and economy back,” Kaine said. “Parents are locked out of the workforce because they can’t find care for their kids. Workers who are passionate about child care are being squeezed out of their field because they can’t pay their bills. If we let critical child care stabilization funding expire, things are only going to get worse. Millions of families who will otherwise lose their child care are depending on Congress passing this legislation to extend these urgently-needed funds.”

Democrats in Congress delivered historic federal investments to prevent the collapse of families in the U.S. when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an already-fragile child care industry to the edge. Funding included $24 billion for child care, which has made an enormous difference for families across the country, keeping 220,000 child care providers afloat over the last few years and saving child care slots for up to 10 million kids nationwide. The funding is set to expire on September 30, 2023.

Kaine called on President Joe Biden last month to support $16 billion in federal funding each year to prevent a national wave of child care closures. His bill would provide funding each year for the next five years to continue the successful Child Care Stabilization Grant program and prevent a potential crisis.

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The odds are against American federal lawmakers to approve 12 spending bills in time to avoid a government shutdown.

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia joined Prince William County business leaders and local officials Tuesday to discuss the impact a government shutdown would have on Virginia’s economy.

Spanberger spoke out against the hyper-partisanship and political games that have driven lawmakers to this point — and she shared more data about how previous shutdowns hurt Virginia’s economy.

“I’m going to start by stating the obvious: government shutdowns are bad for Virginia,” Spanberger said Tuesday. “They are bad for businesses. They are bad for families. They are bad for Virginia jobs. And they are bad for our overall economy. As Congress heads back to Washington to start our fall session, we have a long to-do list. But our very top priority needs to be avoiding a government shutdown.”

She said that previous shutdowns hurt finances and job security for Virginia families, especially in northern Virginia.

Spanberger also highlighted the need to incentivize lawmakers to avoid repeated, avoidable and reckless potential crises. She discussed her bipartisan bill that would block Members of Congress from receiving their pay during any default or government shutdown.

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Tim Kaine could not run fast enough from the question about Susanna Gibson, the Virginia House candidate whose sex tapes were outed this week by the Washington Post, at the behest of a Republican Party operative.

“I was very surprised at this story. I was at a campaign event in Henrico with many local and state candidates, school board, county supervisor, constitutional officers, House and Senate members on Saturday, and Ms. Gibson was one of the candidates. As far as I know, it’s the first time I met her, and it’s a little bit unusual, because she’s one of the few General Assembly candidates who’s never asked me for an endorsement,” Kaine said, fumbling for words, in response to a question from a reporter on a conference call on Wednesday.

“I don’t really know her that well, but I was very, very, very surprised at the story, and it really took me aback,” Kaine said. “I heard from somebody, this event was Saturday, midday, I heard from somebody very late Saturday or early Sunday, that a negative story might be coming. But when I read it yesterday, I mean, it was very surprising.”

Gibson is the Democratic Party nominee in the 57th House District, one of the seven House seats listed as tossups by the Virginia Public Access Project.

Video content featuring Gibson, 40, a nurse practitioner and married mother of two, from a website calling itself Chaturbate ended up on a non-password-protected site that the GOP operative brought to the attention of the Post, which in its reporting noted that it does not normally name the victims of alleged sex crimes, because obviously, even as Gibson, and her attorney, are alleging just that, that she has been made a victim of a crime.

“We are working closely with state and federal law enforcement, said Daniel P. Watkins, Gibson’s attorney, telling the Post that the dissemination of the videos from the private website without Gibson’s consent is a violation of the state’s revenge porn law, which makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to “maliciously” distribute nude or sexual images of another person with “intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate.”

It’s remarkable that the Post allowed itself to be used by a Republican operative to bring attention to the videos; among other things, you have to wonder if the operative was behind the effort to post the content to the non-password-protected site, and what role the campaign of Gibson’s Republican opponent, David Owen, might have played in the story.

All we get from the Post on that is that the operative “denied a connection to Ms. Gibson’s opponent, David Owen, or to other political groups in Virginia,” which, whew, the operative denied everything, so that’s a big bit of relief there.

Kaine’s shameful effort to distance himself from Gibson stands in stark contrast to the response of Democratic State Sen. Louise Lucas: “They’re looking for anything they can find on any candidate that they think might sway the voters,” Lucas said. In a statement “It all has to do with who is going to get control of the Senate and who is going to get control of the House. It’s all about control.”

Democratic women’s advocacy group Emily’s List also weighed in on Gibson’s side.

“Susanna originally ran for office because of the overturning of Roe, and she’s been very outspoken on standing up for reproductive rights. People are coming out in support of Susanna because they know that Republicans are coming after her because she was standing up for them,” Emily’s List spokesperson Lauren Chou.

One other women’s group got on the record in support of Gibson: the National Organization for Women.

“In light of the anonymous, personal attack on Virginia’s Susanna Gibson this week, it is important that we call out these tactics for what they are: another attempt to silence a strong woman who threatens the balance of power,” said Lisa Sales, the president of Virginia NOW. “It is clear to us she is being attacked because she is an abortion rights advocate who is gaining momentum in an election that is increasingly about maintaining Virginia as the last Southern state with access to legal abortion and which offers safe harbor for girls, women and pregnant people facing crisis pregnancies.

“Virginia NOW applauds Gibson’s refusal to be intimidated by those who will stop at nothing to maintain control over women,” Sales said.

And then there’s Kaine, who doesn’t want to be anywhere near Susanna Gibson.

“You know, legit, she hasn’t even asked me for an endorsement, and so, or any advice about this, and the, you know, the stories, as far as I have read the stories, I’ve read her comment has been, don’t invade my privacy,” Kaine said, by way of tossing a word salad. “I don’t even really feel like, I know some facts as they’re reported, but I don’t know all of them. But again, it was a very surprising thing to read about it, and again, I don’t really have much sense of it. Because, as far as I know, it was first time we’d met, and I hadn’t even been asked to endorse her.”

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A building boom during the COVID-19 pandemic brought 1.2 million apartments to the rental market in the United States in three years, the highest level since the 1970s.

The trend is not slowing down, thankfully, as rental costs are on the rise, supply is attempting to meet demand with another million projected for construction through 2025, according to RentCafe’s Apartment Construction Report.

Economic challenges are expected to affect the pace of construction, but 2023 is shaping up as a new peak year for construction as developers are expected to open 460,860 rentals by the end of December.

The pace of construction is expected to slow in 2025 because of economic conditions after the construction of 484,000 units in 2024. The industry predicts a significant drop of 15 percent in 2025, when only 408,000 apartments are projected for construction.

The No. 1 builder of rental homes is New York with no less than 33,000 new units scheduled by the end of 2023. Nearly 1/3 will be in Brooklyn, while Queens will have an additional 4,430 new rentals completed, significantly more than the 3,770 new apartments expected in Manhattan.

Dallas is the No. 2 builder with 23,659 new rentals anticipated by the end of 2023, nearly 10,000 apartments less than New York. Developers are scheduled to open 23,434 rentals in Austin by the end of the year.

Supply is anticipated to slow after this year’s projects because of economic conditions.

“Tightening of bank lending standards — combined with rising costs of construction materials, labor and land — has made new projects harder to pencil,” Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, said.

Looking back on the rental market in America, only 60 percent of new units built between 2020 and 2022 were accessible to only 41 percent of the country’s renter population. During the pandemic, apartments were built in just 20 high-growth metro areas, and approximately 89 percent of apartments built since 2020 are high-end.

Households grew at a rapid rate after the pandemic as job growth boomed and young adults moved out of their parents’ homes. At the same time, “work-from-home prompted renters to form their own households to gain more living space for offices, children and pets,” Ressler said.

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Joe Biden had a great line this week at a campaign event in Northern Virginia on why Republicans are signaling that they to want to impeach him.

“I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me,” Biden said. “And now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government.”

That’s about as much as we can glean from both of the nonsense pushes from House Republicans, who pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy into launching an impeachment inquiry against Biden without a substantive charge to base impeachment on, as they also threaten to shut down the government for reasons that they haven’t quite been able to explain.

(Ahem, it’s politics.)

Count Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, among those fed up with the House not being able to keep its house in order.

“It’s my hope that reason prevails,” Kaine told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday, knowing as he said the words out loud that he’s expressing wishful thinking more than anything else.

There’s no reason to anything that Republicans are doing with the shutdown threat, and a bill that Kaine shepherded through Congress during the last shutdown is a key reason why.

The 2019 bill guarantees back pay for federal employees following a government shutdown, meaning effectively, taxpayers, during a shutdown, are still on the hook for the costs of government services even though they can’t access them.

“That’s not a fiscally conservative position,” Kaine said.

The shutdown threat, just like the impeachment with no charges, is, of course, all about 2024.

It’s about “leverage,” Kaine said, the thought that shutting down national parks, the IRS, not funding the defense budget, the rest, will somehow get people to want to pull the lever for Rs next year.

“This is a threat that usually goes away at the last minute, and that makes me mad, even if it goes away, because you needlessly scare people when you shouldn’t,” Kaine said. “But especially now that the federal employees are guaranteed paychecks anyway, don’t walk them out of their office and tell them they can’t serve their colleagues.

“So again, it’s my hope that reason prevails,” Kaine said. “And again, this is not primarily a Senate issue because the Senate Dems and Rs are working well together to move forward on budget, but this there’s a core of the House GOP that’s pushing this, and I wish they wouldn’t, you know, not needlessly scare people.”

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Ben Cline just can’t quit self-styled Leninist Steve Bannon.

Seven months after his last appearance, Cline, the Republican who represents the Sixth District of Virginia in the U.S. House, was again a guest on Bannon’s conspiracy-friendly podcast “War Room.”

Cline stuck close to his far-right Freedom Caucus talking points.

Once again there was the irony of Cline complaining about the Biden administration’s alleged lack of cooperation with congressional committees while on a podcast hosted by a man who was sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine after he was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Bannon is free pending appeal.)

Once again there were the reflexive digs at Nancy Pelosi (who is no longer in a leadership position in the House of Representatives) and complaints about “woke and weaponized” government.

To avoid a government shutdown which Freedom Caucus members are threatening, Cline said, the Commerce Department, the Education Department and the Labor Department “need to be defunded just a lot.” Someone needs to ask him what he means by “just a lot” and which programs need to be defunded.

On Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry on President Biden, Cline claimed that the evidence of criminality by Biden is “overwhelming.”

But as CNN reported after fact-checking McCarthy’s claims: “House Republicans have not presented any proof that Joe Biden ever profited off his son’s business deals or was influenced while in office by his son’s business dealings.” Even many of Cline’s fellow Republicans in the Senate think it’s a bad idea.

Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.

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Legislation was reintroduced Tuesday in the U.S. House that would end safety testing of cosmetic products on animals.

The Humane Cosmetics Act would also prohibit the sale of products developed using animal testing in the United States.

U.S. Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia, Vern Buchanan of Florida, Tony Cárdenas of California, Ken Calvert of California and Paul Tonko of New York led a bipartisan delegation in reintroducing the bill.

“Cosmetics testing on animals is cruel, unnecessary, and outdated, and Congress should finally put a stop to it,” Beyer said. “Much of the cosmetics industry has already moved to more scientifically sound methods that do not result in animal cruelty. The Humane Cosmetics Act would outlaw an obsolete and inhumane practice without damaging American businesses. I thank my colleagues for supporting the Humane Cosmetics Act, which I hope will receive swift consideration.”

Buchanan is co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus.

“Subjecting animals to painful experiments to test cosmetics is inhumane and entirely unnecessary. “Scientific advancements have created viable alternatives to these cruel experiments, while still ensuring that cosmetic products are safe for human use. As countries around the world work to prohibit animal testing in cosmetics, it’s time for the United States to get on board,” he said.

According to Cárdenas, it is time for the U.S. to move past the cruel, inhumane practice.

“I’ve been a champion for animal rights throughout my years in public service, and we’ve come a long way — now there are non-animal, cost-efficient research methods that we should be using instead of horrific, unacceptable tests on animals. I’m proud to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in introducing this bipartisan bill to protect animals from abuse,” Cárdenas said.

Calvert said the bill “will protect animals from being subjected to unnecessary testing by banning the production and sale of animal-tested cosmetics. I have and will continue to advocate for the expanded use of scientific alternatives to animal testing as a way to protect animals as well as lower costs for consumers and taxpayers.”

Tonko said that thousands of animals suffer from cosmetic testing every year in the U.S.

“This cruel practice continues even as scientific advancements have created viable alternatives that make animal testing unnecessary. Our Humane Cosmetics Act would institute national restrictions on animal testing for cosmetics, all while supporting the development and implementation of testing alternatives that will ensure the continued growth of the U.S. cosmetics industry. I’m proud to support this legislation that will restore America’s position as a world leader in cruelty-free safety methods that promote the well-being of humans and animals alike,” Tonko said.

Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, said that 11 states and 44 countries have already “slammed the door shut on new animal testing for cosmetics. In fact, the U.S. is essentially the only country in the North America that hasn’t passed legislation to end it. We want consumers to be safe. Non-animal tests are faster and more relevant to human health, and that’s why the Personal Care Products Council supports the bill. In this divided Congress, leadership matters and Reps. Beyer, Buchanan, Tonko, Calvert, and Cardenas should be applauded for protecting consumers and animals while promoting good science.”

Monica Engebretson, Head of Public Affairs North America, Cruelty Free International, said her organization applauds the renewed effort.

“This is a unifying issue that has earned bipartisan support and will match the progress we are seeing at the state-level and around the world as consumers, companies, regulators, and advocates come together to achieve a common goal of ensuring that animals won’t suffer for the sake of cosmetics anywhere,” Engebretson said.

Companion legislation in the U.S. Senate is expected later in the session.

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