Congress moves to stop federal funding of painful animal research at universities
H.R. 233 — HELP PETS Act · Filed by Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jan 7, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits federal funding to colleges and universities that conduct painful biomedical research on dogs and cats, effective 180 days after enactment. It carves out exceptions for clinical veterinary research (treating sick or injured animals) and research on service or military animals. The bill defines 'painful research' by reference to USDA pain categories D and E, the most severe classifications.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a funding prohibition tied to research ethics (pain severity), not a deregulation, subsidy, or procedural change. It is a straightforward values-based restriction on how federal education dollars may be spent.
What the text implies
- Institutions may respond by relocating painful dog/cat research to private (non-federally-funded) labs, shifting the research outside federal oversight but not eliminating it.
- The USDA pain categories (D and E) are the operative standard; any change to USDA classification methodology could alter which research is prohibited without amending this statute.
- Clinical veterinary research exception may create a loophole: research on animals with induced or experimentally-created conditions could potentially be recharacterized as 'clinical' if framed as studying treatment protocols.
- Service and military animal exception preserves federal funding for painful research on dogs used by armed forces and law enforcement, creating a carve-out for government-directed animal research.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens gain alignment between their tax dollars and their stated values: federal funding is withdrawn from research most citizens find ethically objectionable (painful experiments on companion animals), while legitimate clinical veterinary care and military/service animal research remain funded. The bill respects both animal welfare and legitimate research needs.
Named in the bill
institutions of higher education, Department of Agriculture (USDA), Higher Education Act of 1965, section 2583(i)(1) of title 10 (military animals), section 37.3 of title 49 CFR (service animals)
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Jan 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 7, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 20 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Nicole Malliotakis, the sponsor, reported $1,140,250 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- White Coat Waste Project Inc — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,676 characters) on Aug 17, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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