WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, Congresswoman Lisa McClain led a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), demanding answers as to why inhumane Russian animal labs are still eligible to receive U.S. taxpayer funds.

“Talk is cheap. Earlier this year, the Biden Administration committed to stopping the flow of tax dollars to draconian Russian animal labs, which they still have not done,” said Rep. Lisa McClain. “The United States must immediately stop funding these inhumane facilities once and for all. I will continue to be a steward of taxpayer funds to make sure that not a single tax dollar gets wasted on inhumane Russian animal research.”

“Most Republicans and Democrats agree: taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay white coats in Kremlin-run animal labs to torture cats in wasteful experiments” said Tristan Daedalus, Director of Government Affairs at White Coat Waste Project. “Having first exposed the NIH’s reckless funding of Russian animal labs, we applaud Rep. McClain for leading bipartisan efforts to defund this waste and abuse and to ensure that bureaucrats implement the White House’s June 2022 directive to cut off this senseless spending.  The solution is simple: Stop the money, stop the madness.”

This letter to the National Institutes of Health expands on a previous letter led by Rep. McClain to President Biden demanding he cut off all U.S. taxpayer funding to Russian labs that experiment on animals in an extremely cruel way. The letter seeks to determine whether the Biden Administration is serious about its commitment to stop sending tax dollars to Russian labs, especially during the countries ongoing war in Ukraine.