[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4971 Introduced in House (IH)]

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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Animal Experimentation Right To Know 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Over 21,000,000 animals are used every year in 
        laboratory experiments and tests conducted by research 
        facilities subject to the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2131 et 
        seq.), and many of these experiments and tests are painful, 
        distressful and cause permanent injury or death to the animals.
            (2) In addition to animal experimentation and testing 
        conducted by private research facilities, the Federal 
        Government spends over $5,000,000,000 annually on experiments 
        and tests involving the use of animals.
            (3) The Federal Government must bear the responsibility for 
        making information on animal experimentation complete, 
        coherent, and readily accessible to the American public.
            (4) While the Department of Agriculture currently requires 
        all registered research facilities conducting animal research 
        to file an annual report, the compilation of these reports 
        fails to provide comprehensive annual profiles of laboratory 
        animal use in the United States.
            (5) The Department of Defense conducts almost $200,000,000 
        worth of animal testing every year and has not provided 
        detailed information on its experimentation programs.
            (6) Military researchers receive Federal funding for tests 
        involving animals without being subject to the same review 
        process as other researchers in the scientific community.

SEC. 3. RESEARCH FACILITIES ANNUAL REPORT REGARDING ANIMAL 
              EXPERIMENTATION AND TESTING.

    (a) Additional Elements of Report.--Subsection (a)(7)(B) of section 
13 of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2143) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of clause (ii);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of clause (iii) and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new clauses:
            ``(iv) information regarding where animals used by such 
        facility were obtained;
            ``(v) an accurate count of all animals of all species used 
        in animal experimentation testing, including rats, mice, birds 
        and other animals; and
            ``(vi) information regarding the general purposes of the 
        animal experimentation program of such facility, including 
        whether the animals were used in the fields of research, 
        testing, or education.''.
    (b) Availability of Certain Report Information.--Subsection (a)(7) 
of such section is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(C) The Secretary shall develop a system for releasing to the 
public information derived from subparagraph (B)(iv) regarding where 
animals used in research are obtained.''.

SEC. 4. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION PROGRAMS.

    (a) Special Requirements for Defense Research Facilities.--Section 
14 of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2144) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(a) In General.--'' after ``Sec. 14.''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b) Special Requirements for Department of Defense.--(1) The 
Secretary of Defense shall submit an annual report to Congress on the 
animal experimentation programs of the Department of Defense. The 
report shall provide in-depth profiles of animal research (including 
testing, education and training) conducted at each Department research 
facility. To the greatest extent possible, such report should be filed 
as an unclassified document.
    ``(2) The annual report shall include the following:
            ``(A) Initiatives to promote alternative research methods 
        that would phase out and reduce the use of animals in research.
            ``(B) Procedures adopted to prevent unintended duplication 
        of research.
            ``(C) The total cost of the animal-based research in 
        comparison to other forms of biological research conducted by 
        the research facilities, each military department, and the 
        Department of Defense as a whole.
    ``(3) The Secretary of Defense shall establish programs to phase 
out and replace current uses of animals at research facilities of the 
Department of Defense, in accordance with the initiatives identified 
under paragraph (2)(A).
    ``(4) The Secretary of Defense shall appoint an ombudsman for 
animal issues at each research facility of the Department of Defense. 
The purpose of this individual would be to field and act on any 
complaints and concerns about the facility's animal care and use 
program.
    ``(5) The Secretary of Defense shall submit an annual report to the 
Secretary of Agriculture in accordance with section 13(a)(7).
    ``(6) The Secretary of Defense may submit a waiver form in place of 
any information regarding animal tests that the Secretary of Defense 
determines cannot be publicly disclosed for reasons of national 
security.''.
    (b) Review of Defense Animal Experimentation Programs.--The 
President shall appoint an 11 member panel of biomedical experts and 
animal care experts to investigate the animal use and care programs of 
the Department of Defense. At the direction of the President, the panel 
shall examine the ethics and regulation of the number and types of 
animal experiments conducted by the Department of Defense.
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