In a massive blow to wasteful government spending and animal cruelty, Congress just cut funding for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) painful experiments on dogs and cats as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The bill passed the House today by a vote of 312-112, and it now heads to the Senate, after which President Donald Trump is expected to sign it. Yesterday, the Trump White House announced it “strongly supports” the bill.
The cruelty-ending policy was included in the just-passed 2026 defense policy bill thanks to relentless efforts by taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste.
The NDAA text prohibits the DOD’s painful research on dogs and cats, stating “the Secretary of Defense may not conduct, or support the conduct of, painful research on a domestic cat (Felis catus) or a domestic dog (Canis familiaris).” The measure does include a national security waiver option with mandated Defense Secretary approval and congressional notification.
WCW’s Freedom of Information Act investigations, government spending analyses, and lobbying made this issue a priority for the Pentagon and Congress and laid the groundwork for this major victory.
In a statement celebrating the vote, WCW President and Founder Anthony Bellott said:
“Thanks to White Coat Waste’s investigations and advocacy—and outstanding leadership from Congress and the Trump administration—we’re on the verge of making history by enacting the first-ever law to cut the Pentagon’s wasteful spending on painful dog and cat experiments.
WCW was the first and only group to expose the Defense Department’s taxpayer-funded abuse of pets in labs in the U.S., China, and other foreign countries, including poisoning puppies with experimental drugs and implanting electrodes in cats’ heads. Our shocking investigations prompted Trump’s Navy Secretary John Phelan to ban all dog and cat testing and Secretary Pete Hegseth to cancel millions in wasteful animal testing contracts earlier this year.
We’re proud that our campaign laid the groundwork for this massive NDAA win for taxpayers and animals by building a big-tent bipartisan coalition—from MAGA allies like Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, and Lara Trump, to progressive leaders like Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen, deficit hawk Sen. Rand Paul, and key Armed Services Committee champions including Sen. Joni Ernst and Reps. Nancy Mace and Don Davis.
If President Trump signs the 2026 NDAA into law, as expected, taxpayers will no longer be forced to pay for the Pentagon’s pet abuse that White Coat Waste has spent years fighting. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness.”
Back in 2023, WCW sued the DOD for documents revealing deadly constipation and erectile dysfunction experiments on cats that DARPA and the Navy were funding at the University of Pittsburgh. By 2024, their exposés of DOD cat and dog research sparked a House vote to defund the pet tests in the previous NDAA. The amendment passed unanimously, though it was stripped from the final bill at the last minute despite broad bipartisan support. Undeterred, WCW ramped up in 2025.
Working with Roger Stone, GOP Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Nancy Mace, Paul Gosar, Greg Steube, Anna Paulina Luna, and others, WCW started the year by pushing President Trump’s new administration to end dog and cat testing government-wide.
By May, Trump’s DOD canceled the $10M Navy cat constipation contract, after pressure from WCW, independent journalist Laura Loomer and Elon Musk. Navy Secretary John Phelan then banned all dog and cat testing, crediting WCW directly. This made the Navy the first federal agency to prohibit such experiments entirely.
Thank you to @RobertKennedyJr, @DOGE, @LauraLoomer, @WhiteCoatWaste, and @SenRandPaul, among others, for bringing the issue of animal abuse to our attention, leading to @SecNav’s decision to ban medical research testing on cats and dogs.
Also, thanks @mattgaetz for having me on… pic.twitter.com/hEOtAU19fW
— ARCHIVE: NavSecSpox (@SecNavSpox) May 31, 2025
That same month, WCW shut down a contract funded by the DOD and National Institutes of Health for cruel drug tests on 300 “cute” beagles weekly in China.
Then, in July, Laura Loomer released a WCW investigation showing over $57 million in active DOD-funded dog and cat experiments in the U.S. and foreign countries. Within days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth axed millions in contracts and again credited WCW.
Hegseth even highlighted the Navy’s cat constipation fiasco in a Senate Finance Committee hearing as a poster child for wasteful DOD spending.
Meanwhile, WCW worked behind the scenes with Rep. Nancy Mace on the House Armed Services Committee and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst on the Senate side to embed language in the 2026 NDAA cutting funding for painful dog and cat research across the DOD.
This campaign united an unlikely coalition of federal lawmakers that also included Republican Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Abe Hamadeh, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Democrat Reps. Dina Titus and Don Davis, and many others who advocated with WCW for an end to DOD’s cruel and unnecessary testing on puppies and kittens.
During the first Trump administration, WCW campaigns led President Trump to sign legislation cutting funding for dog, cat and primate experiments at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those VA animal tests have since been eliminated.
The 2026 NDAA language defunding dog and cat tests extends WCW and President Trump’s track record of cleaning out cruel government animal tests.
This win isn’t just for animals, it’s for hardworking Americans tired of their tax dollars funding needless cruelty.
The post Victory for Taxpayers and Animals: White Coat Waste Campaign Leads Congress to Slash Funding for Pentagon’s Cruel Dog and Cat Experiments in 2026 NDAA appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.