I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 4971

To amend the Animal Welfare Act to strengthen the annual reporting requirements of research facilities conducting animal experimentation or testing

and to improve the accountability of animal experimentation programs

of the Department of Defense.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AUGUST 16, 1994

Mr. TORRICELLI (for himself, Mr. JACOBS, Mr. DEUTSCH, Mr. MANTON, Mr.

GEJDENSON, and Mr. SWETT) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the Committees on Agriculture and Armed Services

A BILL

To amend the Animal Welfare Act to strengthen the annual

reporting requirements of research facilities conducting

animal experimentation or testing and to improve the

accountability of animal experimentation programs of the

Department of Defense.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal Experimen5 tation Right To Know Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:
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1 (1) Over 21,000,000 animals are used every

2 year in laboratory experiments and tests conducted

3 by research facilities subject to the Animal Welfare

4 Act (7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq.), and many of these ex5 periments and tests are painful, distressful and

6 cause permanent injury or death to the animals.

7 (2) In addition to animal experimentation and

8 testing conducted by private research facilities, the

9 Federal Government spends over $5,000,000,000

10 annually on experiments and tests involving the use

11 of animals.

12 (3) The Federal Government must bear the re13 sponsibility for making information on animal ex14 perimentation complete, coherent, and readily acces15 sible to the American public.

16 (4) While the Department of Agriculture cur17 rently requires all registered research facilities con18 ducting animal research to file an annual report, the

19 compilation of these reports fails to provide com20 prehensive annual profiles of laboratory animal use

21 in the United States.

22 (5) The Department of Defense conducts al23 most $200,000,000 worth of animal testing every

24 year and has not provided detailed information on

25 its experimentation programs.
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1 (6) Military researchers receive Federal funding

2 for tests involving animals without being subject to

3 the same review process as other researchers in the

4 scientific community.

5 SEC. 3. RESEARCH FACILITIES ANNUAL REPORT REGARD6 ING ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION AND TEST7 ING.

8 (a) ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS OF REPORT.—Sub9 section (a)(7)(B) of section 13 of the Animal Welfare Act

10 (7 U.S.C. 2143) is amended—

11 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of clause (ii);

12 (2) by striking the period at the end of clause

13 (iii) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

14 (3) by adding at the end the following new

15 clauses:

16 ‘‘(iv) information regarding where animals used

17 by such facility were obtained;

18 ‘‘(v) an accurate count of all animals of all spe19 cies used in animal experimentation testing, includ20 ing rats, mice, birds and other animals; and

21 ‘‘(vi) information regarding the general pur22 poses of the animal experimentation program of

23 such facility, including whether the animals were

24 used in the fields of research, testing, or edu25 cation.’’.
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1 (b) AVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN REPORT INFORMA2 TION.—Subsection (a)(7) of such section is amended by

3 adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

4 ‘‘(C) The Secretary shall develop a system for releas5 ing to the public information derived from subparagraph

6 (B)(iv) regarding where animals used in research are ob7 tained.’’.

8 SEC. 4. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANIMAL EXPERIMEN9 TATION PROGRAMS.

10 (a) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DEFENSE RE11 SEARCH FACILITIES.—Section 14 of the Animal Welfare

12 Act (7 U.S.C. 2144) is amended—

13 (1) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—’’ after

14 ‘‘SEC. 14.’’; and

15 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub16 section:

17 ‘‘(b) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DEPARTMENT OF

18 DEFENSE.—(1) The Secretary of Defense shall submit an

19 annual report to Congress on the animal experimentation

20 programs of the Department of Defense. The report shall

21 provide in-depth profiles of animal research (including

22 testing, education and training) conducted at each Depart23 ment research facility. To the greatest extent possible,

24 such report should be filed as an unclassified document.

25 ‘‘(2) The annual report shall include the following:
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1 ‘‘(A) Initiatives to promote alternative research

2 methods that would phase out and reduce the use of

3 animals in research.

4 ‘‘(B) Procedures adopted to prevent unintended

5 duplication of research.

6 ‘‘(C) The total cost of the animal-based re7 search in comparison to other forms of biological re8 search conducted by the research facilities, each

9 military department, and the Department of Defense

10 as a whole.

11 ‘‘(3) The Secretary of Defense shall establish pro12 grams to phase out and replace current uses of animals

13 at research facilities of the Department of Defense, in ac14 cordance with the initiatives identified under paragraph

15 (2)(A).

16 ‘‘(4) The Secretary of Defense shall appoint an om17 budsman for animal issues at each research facility of the

18 Department of Defense. The purpose of this individual

19 would be to field and act on any complaints and concerns

20 about the facility’s animal care and use program.

21 ‘‘(5) The Secretary of Defense shall submit an annual

22 report to the Secretary of Agriculture in accordance with

23 section 13(a)(7).

24 ‘‘(6) The Secretary of Defense may submit a waiver

25 form in place of any information regarding animal tests
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1 that the Secretary of Defense determines cannot be pub2 licly disclosed for reasons of national security.’’.

3 (b) REVIEW OF DEFENSE ANIMAL EXPERIMEN4 TATION PROGRAMS.—The President shall appoint an 11

5 member panel of biomedical experts and animal care ex6 perts to investigate the animal use and care programs of

7 the Department of Defense. At the direction of the Presi8 dent, the panel shall examine the ethics and regulation of

9 the number and types of animal experiments conducted

10 by the Department of Defense.

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