Rep. Calvert Reintroduces Bill to Increase Transparency about Federal Animal Testing

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) reintroduced the Federal Accountability in Chemical Testing (FACT) Act, H.R. 197. The FACT Act would improve reporting by EPA, FDA, NIH, USDA and other government agencies about their efforts to replace inefficient, multi-million-dollar animal tests with faster, less costly and more effective alternative methods for assessing the safety of chemicals, drugs, foods, cosmetics and other substances.

"Subjecting animals to unnecessary testing is not only cruel but is a waste of taxpayer dollars," said Rep. Calvert. "I have reintroduced the FACT Act to protect animals and taxpayers. This bill builds upon the tremendous progress animal welfare advocates and I have made in curbing the use of animals in federally funded tests through the development of effective alternatives."

The common-sense, bipartisan FACT Act amends the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) Authorization Act of 2000, which was created thru legislation authored by Rep. Calvert. The FACT Act specifies that biennial progress reports already required under the Act include details on how many animals were used by each agency and for what tests, as well as those it required in regulatory submissions. Some individual animal tests can cost taxpayers $4 million, use thousands of animals and take more than five years to complete.

Federal laws require agencies to minimize animal tests in favor of high-tech alternatives like cell-based tests and sophisticated computer models. However, federal agencies do not currently report how many animals they use in testing or what they're used for, making it impossible for Congress to assess their compliance and progress to replace wasteful animal tests.

A review by the non-profit White Coat Waste Project – which has endorsed the FACT Act – found that government agencies are regularly conducting hundreds of animal tests on cosmetics ingredients, foods, natural supplements, tobacco products, industrial chemicals, and drugs using mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, monkeys, and other animals.