For far too long, your taxpayer dollars have been used to fund gruesome and unnecessary experiments on animals. These painful and invasive tests include inducing heart attacks in dogs, severing the spines of cats, chaining monkeys inside tiny cages and more. The promised miracle cures never materialize, leaving only a cruel and wasteful track record in their wake. That’s why I am committed to ending this taxpayer-funded animal abuse so that Americans aren’t forced to subsidize this kind of “research” ever again.

Each year, agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs collectively receive billions of dollars in federal funding. The federal government’s misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund these outdated, often deadly experiments must stop.

In 2019, after I helped introduce the KITTEN Act in the House of Representatives, the USDA agreed to end their experiments on cats and adopted out the survivors to loving homes. Additionally, thanks to legislation I helped pass in Congress that same year, the VA was also required to phase out their animal experiments.

We have made great progress in recent years, but there is more fight left. We need to pass legislation right now that will end the government’s grotesque treatment of animals once and for all. A few bills I am continuing to work on to achieve this include the PUPPERS Act, which I helped introduce and will prohibit the VA from inflicting any pain or serious distress on dogs; the AFTER Act, which requires federal agencies to adopt out animals they use for research; and the FACT Act, which will improve transparency in government research labs to help protect animals from unnecessary and ineffective chemical tests.

The bottom line is this: Taxpayer-funded animal cruelty is unacceptable, and it is well-past time for Congress to bring it to an end! Together, we can continue to build on our success until we do just that.