As you know, it’s going to be a while longer before we know the winner of the 2020 presidential election. (Our crystal ball’s in the shop, too, alas.)

But we can tell you with 100 percent assurance that regardless of who’s in the White House come January 20, 2021, taxpayers of all stripes have one big item on that president’s agenda:

Cutting the FDA’s dog testing red tape. 

Yep, take this one to the bank.

Ending the Food and Drug Administration’s cruel, wasteful, harmful, expensive, pointless dog testing mandate is already this year’s big political winner.

A national poll of over 1,000 taxpayers conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies in September 2020, found a clear majority want the next president’s administration to abolish the FDA’s burdensome maximum pain dog testing requirement. That’s regardless of who’s in the White House. This includes 62 percent of Republicans, 54 percent of Democrats, and 51 percent of independents.

Meanwhile just 23 percent of respondents said they want the FDA to continue requiring drug companies to force as many as 20,000 dogs per year to inhale and ingest massive doses of experimental drugs in wasteful tests even though the companies themselves prefer to test new medicines using cutting edge non-dog technology, like organs-on-chips.

In a new poll, 62 percent of Republicans, 54 percent of Democrats, and 51 percent of independents said regardless of who wins the November 2020 election, they want the next administration to abolish the FDA’s dog testing mandate.

These figures align with previous polling showing that most taxpayers are unaware of the FDA’s dog testing mandate. Two-thirds of Americans are with White Coat Waste Project on the urgent need to cut FDA red tape, as soon as they find out the government is holding industry (and puppies) hostage, blocking lifesaving treatments from patients, and wrecking companies’ bottom line just to fulfill some outdated regulations.

Sound like a strong bipartisan mandate? It sure is!

Indeed, more than 110,000 White Coat Waste Project supporters of all political persuasions have signed our petition demanding the Food and Drug Administration abolish its wasteful and cruel dog testing mandate, with more adding their names every day.

And in July, powerful Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives led by Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Scott Perry (R-PA) sent a strongly worded letter to the FDA, writing that getting rid of the dog testing demand would “save time, money and dogs, and accelerate medical innovation.”

Also coming from both aisles in Congress: The FDA’s House funding panel and full House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed their 2021 FDA funding bill, including a WCW-backed measure directing the agency to issue a report on how drug makers can avoid wasteful, slow, and costly dog testing mandates in favor of more efficient and effective alternatives, and to revise its outdated and burdensome regulations.

The measure passed the full House in July, and now goes on to the Senate—two of whose members, WCW Waste Warrior awardees Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a member of the FDA’s Senate funding panel, and Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), have dispatched a letter to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn calling for the FDA to end the agency’s requirement that drug companies test on dogs.

This latest poll is just one more piece of evidence that cutting FDA red tape is a critical issue for Republicans AND Democrats.

As philanthropist and WCW advisor Louise Linton put it in a terrific op-ed in The Hill:

“You don’t need me to tell you this is not an era that will go down in history for its great bipartisanship,” she writes. “Democrats and Republicans seem to be at war. But bipartisanship on the issue of cutting government bureaucracy to save dogs and people? There, I am very happy to say and to see, and we’re united.” 

But wait there’s more! Polls also show that taxpayers overwhelmingly support WCW efforts to cut wasteful spending on cruel government experiments on cats, dogs, and primates, and disturbing “live tissue training.”

There’s a lot we don’t know about what’s coming around the political bend. We do know for absolute certain that cutting FDA red tape and other taxpayer-funded animal testing should be a top priority for the president, whoever that may be.

You can help! Please take a moment to sign our action alert to tell lawmakers you want to cut FDA red tape to spare dogs, stop waste, and save lives.