• Following White Coat Waste Project advocacy and lobbying, Congress has passed legislation directing EPA to reinstate a timeline for cutting animal tests and report on animal use and spending
• Last year, a blockbuster WCW investigation exposed how the Biden EPA completely “stripped out” its plan to end animal tests by 2035 and is killing lab bunnies it was supposed to retire
• WCW is uniting Democrats and Republicans in Congress to hold the EPA accountable for wasting animals’ lives and millions of tax dollars

Last year, a White Coat Waste Project (WCW) blockbuster investigation uncovered how President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed the agency’s historic and widely-supported plans to phase out all testing on mammals by 2035 and retire rabbits from its labs. WCW joined forces with former EPA chief Andrew Wheeler—a volunteer WCW adviser—to expose how his successor killed his plan to save tax dollars and animals.

Citing WCW’s investigation, in February a bipartisan coalition of more than three dozen Congressmembers demanded answers from the EPA. In May, we co-hosted a bipartisan briefing on Capitol Hill urging lawmakers to include language in the EPA’s 2025 spending bill to make the agency accountable for backtracking.

WCW Senior VP Justin Goodman (center) with lab survivors Beesly and Uno at our May 2024 Congressional briefing urging lawmakers to reinstate the EPA’s animal testing phase-out timeline and rabbit retirement plan.

We’re thrilled to report that Congress listened! The EPA’s 2025 spending bill that was passed by the House of Representatives on July 24 includes WCW-backed language requiring the agency to produce a report on its animal use and spending since it canceled the phase-out plan and reinstate a timeline for cutting animal tests.

WCW has exposed how since the EPA killed its animal testing phase-out plan, the agency’s wasteful animal testing involves, among other taxpayer-funded abuses, cruelly forcing animals to breathe smoke from handguns, rifles, and lab-simulated wildfires. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

We’re grateful to Reps. Lisa McClain (R-MI), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Don Davis (D-NC), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and others who have worked with WCW to hold the EPA accountable for backtracking on its plan to end animal tests and retire rabbits.

This bipartisan effort to ensure the issue was addressed in the EPA’s spending bill was also championed by Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Brandon Williams (R-NY), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Andre Carson (D-IN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Barry Moore (R-AL) and Scott Perry (R-PA).

As we work to get this legislation to the president’s desk, you can tell Congress to reinstate the EPA’s rabbit retirement policy and plan to eliminate all testing on mammals by 2035!