A bipartisan House duo today planned to introduce a bill to stop the U.S. National Institutes of Health from dumping billions more of taxpayer dollars into overseas animal testing where critics claim the critters are tortured and maimed.
The “CARGO Act” would require that no NIH money be spent on overseas animal testing in large part because the U.S. has little oversight over what occurs in those labs.
In introducing the “Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas,” Reps. Troy E. Nehls (R-TX) and Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), cited PETA reports of NIH funding of a $504,000 test in Australia to infect animals with parasites and a $442,000 experiment in Canada to cut rabbit vocal cords to insert a spatula and then test for inflammation and scarring.
“American’s hard-earned taxpayer money should not be used to fund cruel experiments on animals overseas that do not contribute to advancing public health in our country,” said Nehls. “The fact that the NIH doled out over $2 billion in taxpayer money to foreign laboratories is unacceptable. I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation to ensure that hard-earned tax dollars are not wasted or used to torture animals,” he added.
“Too many NIH programs overseas either fail to hold up under intensive scrutiny or are exempt from that oversight altogether, resulting in the abuse of animals through experiments funded by taxpayer dollars,” said Titus. “The CARGO Act is a critical step in ending animal suffering and redirecting resources to more reliable and humane research methods here in the United States,” she added.
The bill was offered in the last Congress but stalled. Supporters are hopeful that it will do better this year and that it gets the attention of budget cutters in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The lawmakers said that from 2011 to 2021, agencies under the NIH umbrella granted $2.2 billion to foreign laboratories for animal testing in South America, Europe, Asia, and Canada.
The bill provided to Secrets said, “National Institutes of Health does not conduct inspections of foreign organizations, and these organizations self-report information pertaining to animal welfare, creating a risk that information will be misrepresented.”
The legislation comes at a time when the tide is turning against live animal testing in the United States. Later today, the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation is holding a hearing on “transgender lab rats and poisoned puppies.”
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One of the groups that has succeeded in cutting testing on beagles, the White Coat Waste Project, plans to testify and show off beagles that were tested on.
“Slashing government animal tests will spur innovation, spare dogs, and save billions of tax dollars. It’s tailor-made for DOGE,” said Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the project.
