The U.S. House panel that funds the Department of Defense has passed its 2024 spending bill, and it has included language that will cut funding to animal testing facilities in China and Russia — including the infamous Wuhan lab.
The bill additionally cuts all DOD funding to "any animal experiments, virus-hunting or other projects in China involving the disgraced Wuhan lab funder, EcoHealth Alliance," according to White Coat Waste Project, who advocated and lobbied for the changes.
White Coat Waste Project, a non-profit taxpayer watchdog organization, has been conducting a "Worldwide Waste" campaign documenting at least 32 animal testing labs in Russia and China that have received taxpayer funding or have been eligible to in recent years."Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for foreign enemies’ animal experimentation labs, and we’re proud of the progress we’re making to find, expose and defund this waste and abuse in Wuhan and beyond," Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President, White Coat Waste Project, told Timcast News. "If signed into law, this bill would prohibit the Pentagon from sending tax dollars to white coats in dozens of animal labs run by China, Russia and other adversarial nations."
Goodman continued, "Our Worldwide Waste campaign first exposed how the DOD, NIH, USAID, and other federal agencies recklessly ship billions of tax dollars to unaccountable foreign animal labs, including how EcoHealth funneled funds to the Wuhan lab for dangerous gain-of-function animal experiments that likely caused COVID and how taxpayer unwittingly funded a Kremlin-linked lab crippling cats. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
The organization said, "The NIH recently disqualified the Wuhan animal lab and all animal labs in Russia from future taxpayer funding. If passed by the full U.S. House and signed into law later this year, this new bill would also disqualify all labs across China and Russia from Pentagon funding."
Republican House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee members Reps. Chris Stewart and Dave Joyce worked with White Coat Waste on the changes.
Rep. Stewart said in a statement provided to Timcast News, "Our foreign adversaries, particularly China, have proven they should not and cannot be trusted with American taxpayer dollars to conduct laboratory research and experiments. Cutting American funding to research labs in adversarial nations that pose a threat to our national security should never be a partisan issue. I’d like to thank my colleagues who have recognized the importance of this effort."
