RFK Jr.'s quiet push to end animal testing wins rare bipartisan praise in Washington

Few issues have brought Robert F. Kennedy Jr. much cross-party goodwill on Capitol Hill, but his effort to phase out the use of animals in medical research is doing just that. The Health and Human Services secretary, usually a divisive figure among lawmakers, has found rare bipartisan support on this narrow issue.

What happened?

As Roll Call reported, that push is driving policy changes at agencies including the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, even as some researchers caution that science is not yet prepared to abandon animal models.

Federal policy is increasingly reflecting Kennedy's stance; he has said his agency is "deeply committed to ending animal experimentation."

A significant step came June 15, when the NIH created the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application to advance nonanimal science. According to Roll Call, the office will focus on methods such as 3D models of human tissue and other approaches meant to better mirror human biology.

That announcement followed other moves at the NIH and FDA. The NIH has said it will stop awarding grants that rely solely on animal testing, and the FDA issued draft guidance earlier this year on alternatives.

Lawmakers are also weighing how to make the transition. In its HHS-Labor-Education bill, the House Committee on Appropriations told the NIH to more strongly enforce alternatives to animal testing and to ensure that peer reviewers can properly assess nonanimal methods.

Separate legislation is moving as well. One example is Sen. Cory Booker's FDA Modernization Act 3.0, which would push the FDA to fully carry out a 2022 law that ended the old blanket requirement for animal testing before human clinical trials, Roll Call reported.

Why does it matter?

Backers say better nonanimal tools could improve public health by making drug testing more applicable to humans. In turn, that could shorten development timelines, reduce failed clinical trials, and lower research costs that may eventually be borne by patients.

The shift also has strong support from animal welfare advocates, who say replacing painful lab experiments would spare animals. That view has helped some lawmakers support limits on research that causes pain when alternatives exist.

Scientists who oppose a phaseout say animal research is still necessary in some fields. According to Roll Call, the House report itself said that nonhuman primates play an "essential role" in research and remain "indispensable" before therapies move into clinical trials, especially for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Researchers who study the brain and behavior have made a related argument, saying computer models and petri dishes still cannot capture the full complexity of living organisms.

What are people saying?

Booker, a vegan and longtime animal rights advocate, said the administration has made meaningful progress.

"I'm so happy that in a narrow way the Trump administration is making progress on this," he said, according to Roll Call, calling it "a win, win, win, win, win across the board."

Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told Roll Call that several people in the administration, including Kennedy, came in "with a distrust of a lot of the status quo" and "were ready to make change."

Critics, however, are urging caution.

"There should not be arbitrary deadlines or political pressure making scientific decisions," Brandon Morton, vice president of government affairs for the National Association for Biomedical Research, said, according to Roll Call.

Neuroscience researcher Colin Saldanha added, "We cannot approximate the behavior of an organism with anything in a petri dish or on a computer."

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here.