• Following White Coat Waste (WCW) investigations and lobbying, Congress has just reintroduced the bipartisan AFAR Act to defund all animal testing laboratories in China and other adversarial nations
• WCW was the first to expose Dr. Fauci’s funding for the Wuhan animal lab in early 2020 and has since been leading efforts in Washington to cut off all Chinese animal labs
• The Trump Administration has begun to disqualify some Chinese animal labs from federal funding, but WCW exposed how over 20 are still eligible to receive U.S. tax dollars
• WCW’s investigations have uncovered National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for deadly cat experiments in Russia and collaborations with sanctioned labs in Iran and China on cruel primate brain experiments
• 73% of taxpayers—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike—want to cut funding for animal labs in adversarial nations.

Defunding all animal labs in China is at the top of our priority list for the Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and Congress is now taking bipartisan action to cut this reckless foreign aid.

Since 2019, White Coat Waste’s Worldwide Waste campaign has been exposing and ending NIH funding for hundreds of dangerous and unaccountable animal testing labs in foreign countries, including China and Russia. 

We made history by first exposing and cutting Dr. Fauci’s funding for the Wuhan animal lab in early 2020, and we cut off taxpayer funding for Putin’s deadly treadmills tests on kittens and all other animal labs in Russia. 

Last month, DOGE canceled a $677,000 Fauci-funded NIH grant exposed by WCW that paid for cruel malaria experiments on rabbits and mice. Since the beginning of the year, the Trump Administration has also disqualified six Chinese animal labs from receiving more tax money. 

Unfortunately, over 20 other animal labs in China are still eligible to rake in U.S. tax dollars, including one abusing 300 beagles a week with our money. We also uncovered how U.S. taxpayer-funded animal experimenters collaborated with sanctioned labs in Iran and China for invasive brain experiments on primates.

Now, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, WCW is helping Congress re-introduce the bipartisan Accountability in Foreign Animal Research (AFAR) Act (S.1435) to permanently cut NIH funding for all animal testing labs located in China, Russia, and other adversarial nations like Iran and North Korea. Read the bill here.

The AFAR Act, which WCW first helped introduce in 2021, is once again being led by DOGE Senate Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-IA) and introduced in the House by House GOP Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) and Rep. Don Davis (D-NC).

An October 2024 national poll of 1,379 taxpayers found that 73% of taxpayers—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike—want to cut funding for animal testing in adversarial nations.

The AFAR Act will ensure that taxpayers aren’t forced to foot the bill for wasteful, dangerous, and cruel animal experiments in labs run by our foreign enemies!

This Tax Day, I’m cutting off your tax dollars from going to China! pic.twitter.com/fbdqpG9w28

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) April 15, 2025