WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott and Congressman Troy Nehls sent a letter to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), thanking him and President Trump for their leadership in restoring transparency, accountability, and responsibility at the NIH. In the letter, the members thanked President Trump and Dr. Bhattacharya for their work, and raised serious concerns about the continued use of American taxpayer dollars to fund unethical and inadequately regulated animal experiments outside the United States. From 2011 to 2021, the NIH awarded more than $2.2 billion in grants for research in 45 countries, supporting harmful and abusive animal experiments, including infecting bats with deadly diseases, genetically deforming cats, and force-feeding mice human feces. Senator Scott called on Dr. Bhattacharya to take immediate action to institute a ban on all NIH funding for animal experiments conducted overseas as he works alongside President Trump and his administration to ensure taxpayer dollars are no longer used to support inhumane and unaccountable research abroad.

This follows Senator Scott’s and Congressman Nehls’ Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act which would permanently end NIH funding for foreign laboratories conducting experiments on animals.

Read the full letter HERE or below:

Dear Dr. Bhattacharya:

Thank you for the work you and President Trump are doing to bring accountability, transparency, and responsibility to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We are writing to express our serious concern about using taxpayer dollars to fund animal experiments outside the United States. It is deeply concerning that American taxpayer dollars have been used to fund harmful and abusive animal experiments overseas that lack the same oversight and accountability as labs here in the United States. This includes little to no inspections at the facilities where the research is conducted, as well as where the animals are housed and how they are treated. There is also inadequate auditing of foreign NIH-funded animal studies, resulting in significant gaps in oversight and accountability of how taxpayer dollars are being used.

Despite these concerns, from 2011 to 2021, NIH awarded over $2.2 billion in grants for research in 45 different countries. These funds supported a range of disturbing and often unnecessary, animal experiments, including:

• Genetically manipulating cats to be born with deformed legs.
• Infecting bats with a dangerous disease transmissible to—and nearly always fatal in—humans.
• Force-feeding mice human feces, causing alcohol addiction, infecting them with gonorrhea, and more.

This situation represents a serious misuse of taxpayer dollars and the unnecessary suffering of animals. It is a waste of resources that should be allocated to more ethical and effective research practices that do not involve animals.

This Congress, we introduced H.R. 1085 and S. 1802, the Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act, to permanently end the practice of NIH funding animal experiments in foreign laboratories. As we work with President Trump and his administration to diligently ensure that taxpayer dollars are no longer allocated to unethical and inadequately regulated research overseas, we urge you to take immediate action to institute a ban on any NIH funding for animal experiments conducted outside the United States.

We look forward to your swift action on this matter.

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