Stop the SWARM Act Demands USDA Report on Screwworm Readiness Within 30 Days

The aptly named Stop the Screwworms With Active Readiness and Mitigation Act of 2025, or the Stop the SWARM Act, isn’t about immediately launching a massive new program. Instead, it’s a quick-hit piece of legislation focused on making sure the government is prepared for a major agricultural crisis. Specifically, Section 2 requires the Secretary of Agriculture to deliver a comprehensive report to Congress within a tight 30 days of the bill becoming law, detailing the nation’s readiness to handle an outbreak of the New World Screwworm.

Why We Care About Screwworms

For most people, the word “screwworm” sounds like something out of a horror movie, but for anyone involved in livestock, it’s a terrifying economic threat. These parasites lay eggs in open wounds of warm-blooded animals, and the larvae—the screwworms—eat the living tissue. The U.S. successfully eradicated them decades ago, but they still exist in Central and South America. An outbreak here could devastate the cattle, sheep, and pet industries, which is why preparedness is critical.

The 30-Day Homework Assignment

This bill requires the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to conduct a deep dive into its current capabilities. The report has three main assignments. First, it must detail the current level of Domestic Readiness, specifically addressing whether APHIS has a plan to build a U.S.-based facility to produce sterile flies. Sterile flies are the key to eradication—they are released into the wild, mate with native flies, and produce no offspring, effectively collapsing the population. Second, the report needs to cover the Tools and Tech they are using for production and eradication efforts. Finally, and perhaps most strategically, it must provide a Domestic vs. International Production comparison, laying out the costs, benefits, timelines, and hurdles of producing these sterile flies here in the U.S. instead of relying on international facilities.

What This Means for Everyday Life

While this bill doesn't directly change your daily routine, it addresses a major potential threat to the food supply chain. For the cattle rancher in Texas or the small farmer in the Midwest, this report is a crucial step toward ensuring biosecurity. If a screwworm outbreak occurred, the cost of meat and dairy would likely spike due to massive animal losses and quarantine restrictions. By forcing APHIS to assess the strategic benefits of domestic sterile fly production—a key defense mechanism—Congress is trying to close a potential national security gap in the food system.

The catch? APHIS has only 30 days to pull this comprehensive report together. That’s a tight turnaround for analyzing complex infrastructure plans, technological capabilities, and detailed cost comparisons. While the report itself is a win for transparency and preparedness, the short deadline suggests the agency might be scrambling to provide a truly in-depth analysis, especially if they haven't been actively collecting this data already.