I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1547

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

MAY 2, 1995

Mr. TORRICELLI (for himself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. BROWN of California, Mr.

ACKERMAN, Mr. JACOBS, Mr. WILSON, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr.

MANTON, Mr. DEUTSCH, Mr. VENTO, Mr. DELLUMS, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr.

EVANS, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. FARR, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. KLECZKA,

and Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee

on National Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

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,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal Experimen3 tation Right To Know Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 The Congress finds the following:

6 (1) Over 21,000,000 animals are used every

7 year in laboratory experiments and tests conducted

8 by research facilities subject to the Animal Welfare

9 Act (7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq.), and many of these ex10 periments and tests are painful, distressful and

11 cause permanent injury or death to the animals.

12 (2) In addition to animal experimentation and

13 testing conducted by private research facilities, the

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

15 annually on experiments and tests involving the use

16 of animals.

17 (3) The Federal Government must bear the re18 sponsibility for making information on animal ex19 perimentation complete, coherent, and readily acces20 sible to the American public.

21 (4) While the Department of Agriculture cur22 rently requires all registered research facilities con23 ducting animal research to file an annual report, the

24 compilation of these reports fails to provide com25 prehensive annual profiles of laboratory animal use

26 in the United States.
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1 (5) The Department of Defense conducts al2 most $200,000,000 worth of animal testing every

3 year and has not provided detailed information on

4 its experimentation programs.

5 (6) Military researchers receive Federal funding

6 for tests involving animals without being subject to

7 the same review process as other researchers in the

8 scientific community.

9 SEC. 3. RESEARCH FACILITIES ANNUAL REPORT REGARD10 ING ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION AND TEST11 ING.

12 (a) ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS OF REPORT.—Sub13 section (a)(7)(B) of section 13 of the Animal Welfare Act

14 (7 U.S.C. 2143) is amended—

15 (1) in clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, information on

16 the severity of the pain or distress caused by such

17 procedures,’’ after ‘‘animal’’;

18 (2) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of clause (ii);

19 (3) by striking the period at the end of clause

20 (iii) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

21 (4) by adding at the end the following new

22 clauses:

23 ‘‘(iv) information regarding where animals used

24 by such facility were obtained;
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1 ‘‘(v) an accurate count of all animals of all spe2 cies (including rats, mice, and birds) used in animal

3 experimentation testing, which, in the case of animal

4 experimentation testing involving nonhuman prima5 tes, shall be provided for each individual species; and

6 ‘‘(vi) information regarding the general pur7 poses of the animal experimentation program of

8 such facility, including whether the animals were

9 used in the fields of research, testing, or edu10 cation.’’.

11 (b) AVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN REPORT INFORMA12 TION.—Subsection (a)(7) of such section is amended by

13 adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

14 ‘‘(C) The Secretary shall develop a system for releas15 ing to the public information derived from subparagraph

16 (B)(iv) regarding where animals used in research are ob17 tained.’’.

18 (c) TIME FOR SUBMISSION OF REPORT.—Such sub19 section is further amended by inserting after subpara20 graph (C), as added by subsection (b), the following new

21 subparagraph:

22 ‘‘(D) The reports required by subparagraph (A) shall

23 be submitted to the Secretary not later than March 1 of

24 each year.’’.
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1 SEC. 4. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANIMAL EXPERIMEN2 TATION PROGRAMS.

3 (a) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DEFENSE RE4 SEARCH FACILITIES.—Section 14 of the Animal Welfare

5 Act (7 U.S.C. 2144) is amended—

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

7 ‘‘SEC. 14.’’; and

8 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub9 section:

10 ‘‘(b) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DEPARTMENT OF

11 DEFENSE.—(1) Not later than March 1 each year, the

12 Secretary of Defense shall submit a report to Congress

13 on the animal experimentation programs of the Depart14 ment of Defense in existence during the preceding year.

15 Each report shall provide in-depth profiles of animal re16 search (including testing, education and training) con17 ducted at each Department research facility during the pe18 riod covered by the report. To the greatest extent possible,

19 the report should be filed as an unclassified document.

20 ‘‘(2) Each report shall include the following:

21 ‘‘(A) Initiatives to promote alternative research

22 methods that would phase out and reduce the use of

23 animals in research.

24 ‘‘(B) Procedures adopted to prevent unintended

25 duplication of research.
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1 ‘‘(C) The total cost of the animal-based re2 search in comparison to other forms of biological re3 search conducted by the research facilities, each

4 military department, and the Department of Defense

5 as a whole.

6 ‘‘(3) The Secretary of Defense shall establish pro7 grams to phase out and replace current uses of animals

8 at research facilities of the Department of Defense, in ac9 cordance with the initiatives identified under paragraph

10 (2)(A).

11 ‘‘(4) The Secretary of Defense shall appoint an om12 budsman for animal issues at each research facility of the

13 Department of Defense. The duties of this individual

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

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

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

17 report to the Secretary of Agriculture in accordance with

18 section 13(a)(7).

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

20 form in place of any information regarding animal tests

21 that the Secretary of Defense determines cannot be pub22 licly disclosed for reasons of national security.’’.

23 (b) REVIEW OF DEFENSE ANIMAL EXPERIMEN24 TATION PROGRAMS.—
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1 (1) ESTABLISHMENT OF REVIEW PANEL.—The

2 President shall appoint an 11 member panel of bio3 medical experts and animal care experts to inves4 tigate the animal use and care programs of the De5 partment of Defense. At least two of the members

6 of the panel shall be selected from among persons

7 who are not officers or employees of the Federal

8 Government.

9 (2) TIME FOR APPOINTMENT.—The members of

10 the panel shall be appointed not later than 40 days

11 after the date of the enactment of this Act.

12 (3) PURPOSE OF PANEL.—At the direction of

13 the President, the panel shall examine the ethics and

14 regulation of the number and types of animal experi15 ments conducted by the Department of Defense.

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