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    WCW Complaint To NIH - HamsterFights

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    Washington Examiner
    Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay over $20 billion for wasteful government animal experiments according to a letter from White Coat Waste Project. The letter requests an investigation into Georgia State University for violating federal spending transparency laws by failing to disclose that their cruel hamster fighting experiments were funded by $1.6 million in taxpayer grants from NIH and NSF. WCWP argues this is part of widespread noncompliance with transparency laws around funding for animal experiments despite NIH acknowledging the problem. The letter urges action to hold GSU accountable and improve transparency around federal spending on animal testing.

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    WCW Complaint To NIH - HamsterFights

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    Washington Examiner
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    Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay over $20 billion for wasteful government animal experiments according to a letter from White Coat Waste Project. The letter requests an investigation into Georgia State University for violating federal spending transparency laws by failing to disclose that their cruel hamster fighting experiments were funded by $1.6 million in taxpayer grants from NIH and NSF. WCWP argues this is part of widespread noncompliance with transparency laws around funding for animal experiments despite NIH acknowledging the problem. The letter urges action to hold GSU accountable and improve transparency around federal spending on animal testing.

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    WCW Complaint to NIH_HamsterFights

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    Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay over $20 billion for wasteful government animal experiments according to a letter from White Coat Waste Project. The letter requests an investigation into Georgia State University for violating federal spending transparency laws by failing to disclose that their cruel hamster fighting experiments were funded by $1.6 million in taxpayer grants from NIH and NSF. WCWP argues this is part of widespread noncompliance with transparency laws around funding for animal experiments despite NIH acknowledging the problem. The letter urges action to hold GSU accountable and improve transparency around federal spending on animal testing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    2K views3 pages

    WCW Complaint To NIH - HamsterFights

    Uploaded by

    Washington Examiner
    Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay over $20 billion for wasteful government animal experiments according to a letter from White Coat Waste Project. The letter requests an investigation into Georgia State University for violating federal spending transparency laws by failing to disclose that their cruel hamster fighting experiments were funded by $1.6 million in taxpayer grants from NIH and NSF. WCWP argues this is part of widespread noncompliance with transparency laws around funding for animal experiments despite NIH acknowledging the problem. The letter urges action to hold GSU accountable and improve transparency around federal spending on animal testing.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 3

    Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay $20 billion+

    for wasteful government animal experiments.

    June 3, 2022

    Deborah Kearse
    Director, Division of Program Integrity
    National Institutes of Health
    Office of Management Assessment
    6011 Executive Blvd., Suite 601, MSC 7669
    Rockville, MD 20852

    Via email: [email protected]

    Dear Ms. Kearse,

    On behalf of White Coat Waste Project (WCW) and its more than 3 million members and
    supporters, I am writing to request an investigation into violations of federal spending
    transparency law by Georgia State University (GSU) related to their National Institutes of Health
    (NIH)-funded experiments on animals.

    GSU’s press release about wasteful and cruel hamster fighting experiments.
    A May 13, 2022 GSU press release describes NIH-funded experiments in which hamsters
    became hyper-aggressive as a result of genetic engineering. GSU experimenters then placed the
    aggressive hamsters in small cages with non-engineered hamsters and scored them based on how
    they attacked each other in staged, video-recorded fights.1

    According to GSU’s published paper and federal spending databases, these hamster experiments
    were paid for by several grants from the NIH and the National Science Foundation that have
    received a total of $1.6 million in taxpayer funds.2

    Violations of federal spending transparency law by Georgia State University


    As you are aware, long-standing federal spending transparency law—known as the Stevens
    Amendment—requires that any press releases or statements describing taxpayer-funded projects
    under the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services (HHS) must
    include, “ (1) the percentage of the total costs of the program or project which will be financed
    with Federal money; (2) the dollar amount of Federal funds for the project or program; and (3)
    percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program that will be financed by
    non-governmental sources."3

    The press release mentioned in this complaint violates this federal law by failing to report
    the amount of taxpayer funding the grantees spent on these cruel and wasteful
    1
    “Georgia State Researchers Find CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Approach Can Alter the Social Behavior of Animals”, Georgia State News Hub.
    Accessed 6/2/22
    2
    NIH grant R01MH122622, NIH grant R21MH109302, NSF grant IOS-1035960
    3
    Division H, Title V, Sec 505 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (PL. 117-103)
    experiments, the percentage of total costs paid for by taxpayers and how much was funded
    by private sources.

    Systemic spending transparency failures by NIH grantees


    The current example is troubling, but it is a symptom of a broader problem. A recent WCW
    report found widespread violations of the Stevens Amendment by institutions performing
    wasteful NIH-funded animal experiments.4 This follows a 2017 WCW report documenting
    Stevens Amendment violations and a growing list of related complaints that WCW has submitted
    to your office over the last few years. 5

    A Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit that followed the release of WCW’s 2017
    report cited our troublesome findings and wrote that, “NIH officials stated that they do not
    specifically monitor for Stevens Amendment compliance.” 6,7

    The GAO recommended that HHS (including NIH) begin enforcing the law, and HHS stated that
    it “would direct all operating divisions to design a process for implementing and monitoring the
    Stevens Amendment and would update HHS grants policy to reflect this new process” and that it
    “would address any non-compliance issues if they were raised.”

    Unfortunately, it appears NIH and its grantees continue to violate the law with impunity despite
    it being included in the NIH Grants Policy Statement under the heading “Acknowledgment of
    Federal Funding” and the NIH issuing notices specifically reminding grantees of this
    transparency mandate.8,9

    To stem this rampant noncompliance and improve transparency about federal spending, Iowa
    Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) introduced the Cost Openness and
    Spending Transparency (COST) Act (HR 1937/S 760) to require that all recipients of federal
    funds abide by the conditions of the Stevens Amendment and giving the Office of Management
    and Budget the authority to withhold funding for noncompliance.

    Request for action


    For 30 years since the Stevens Amendment was first passed, recipients of NIH funding have
    been legally required to clearly disclose the cost of their projects so taxpayers are aware of how
    their hard-earned money is being spent. Yet, evidence shows ongoing, widespread violations of
    this common-sense spending transparency law. The NIH has acknowledged this problem and
    pledged to address it.

    We urge you to investigate the federal transparency violations documented in this letter and hold
    GSU accountable for its failure to properly disclose taxpayer funding for their experiments on
    animals, including withholding future funding.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any
    questions at [email protected] or 202-643-8453.

    4
    Up In Smoke: WCW Report Exposes Wasteful Cannabis and ‘Vape’ Animal Experiments. WCW Blog, 4/20/22
    5
    New report: Ivy League flunks on animal testing transparency. WCW Blog, 4/25/2017
    6
    Feds confirm WCW report on animal testing transparency violations, propose reforms. WCW Blog, 3/14/2019
    7
    Agency action required to ensure grantees identify federal contribution amounts. Government Accountability Office, 3/14/2019
    8
    NIH grants policy statement (Sec. 4.2.1), Acknowledgement of federal funding.
    9
    NIH: Notice of legislative mandates in effect for FY 2022, 5/9/2022
    Sincerely,

    Daniel Lopez
    Research Manager
    White Coat Waste Project

    cc: Meredith Stein, Acting Director, OMA


    Jeff Hayden, Assistant Director, OMA
    Dr. Michael Lauer, Director OER, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research

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