Mace leads GOP colleagues in calling for end to U.S. funding of Russian labs

The United States must immediately stop funding four Russian labs that conduct controversial animal experiments, said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and five of her Republican colleagues.

“As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, the United States and other nations have come together and levied numerous sanctions meant to cripple the Kremlin,” Rep. Mace and her colleagues wrote in a March 10 letter sent to President Joe Biden. “We write you today demanding you to target another sector of the Russian state: research labs funded in part by U.S. tax dollars.”

According to the lawmakers, the Russian Federation currently has four labs approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive funding from U.S. tax dollars: the Gamaleya Research for Epidemiology and Microbiology; the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy Sciences; the Institute of Cytology of Russian Academy of Science-Saint Petersburg; and the Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“These labs receive funding from the NIH, which helped fund the Wuhan Institute of Virology leading to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as horrific animal experiments in South Carolina’s First Congressional District on Monkey Island,” said Rep. Mace in a March 15 statement. “At least 31 labs located in Russia and China are still permitted to receive U.S. taxpayer money from the NIH that goes specifically to animal experiments. This must end. Now.”

The Pavlov Institute of Physiology in St. Petersburg, for instance, received $550,000 in 2021 for its “brutal and barbaric experiments” on 18 cats, according to the letter, which was also signed by members including U.S. Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL) and Rodney Davis (R-IL).

“Our foreign adversaries, especially ones run by tyrants, should not be given U.S. tax dollars to conduct heinous animal research,” the lawmakers wrote. “This should be a bipartisan, commonsense position. As such, you must take swift and decisive action to block any further U.S. tax dollars from going to Russian research labs.”