Lab worker at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China (Video screenshot)
The National Institutes of Health has banned U.S. scientists from directing federal funds to international research partners.
This secretive practice has previously allowed the funding of the Wuhan animal lab, paid for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s cruel beagle experiments in Tunisia, and funded Russia’s cruel kitten treadmill tests.
NIH just ended pass-thru $ to foreign labs
This secretive spending led to some of the biggest animal testing scandals exposed by WCW:
Wuhan animal lab
Fauci’s biting fly test on beagles
Putin’s kitten treadmill tests
Thank you @NIHDirector_Jay @POTUS @SecKennedy pic.twitter.com/1rdnfV32a8
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 9, 2025
The decision addresses long-standing transparency issues with foreign funding for taxpayer-funded research projects.
According to a notice by the NIH, some recipients have failed to accurately report subawards of $30,000 or more, as required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA). This lack of transparency, particularly with foreign subawards, has raised national security concerns for the U.S. government. To rectify this, NIH is establishing a new award structure prohibiting foreign subawards from being nested under parent grants, effective for all new, renewal, and non-competing continuation grants issued to domestic and foreign entities.
“NIH recognizes that some recipients do not accurately report on subawards consistent with Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) subaward reporting requirements (NIH GPS 8.4.1.5.5), which state that recipients must report on all subawards/subcontracts/consortiums equal to or greater than $30,000,” the agency said. “This includes awards that are initially below $30,000 but subsequent grant modifications result in an award equal to or greater than $30,000. This lack of transparency is particularly concerning in the case of foreign subawards, in which the United States government has a need to maintain national security.”
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who has been critical of previous NIH spending practices, emphasized the need for accountability in a statement about the change.
“By creating a more unified view of where NIH dollars are going, we are strengthening public trust and improving accountability to recipients of federal dollars,” Bhattacharya said.
The decision follows years of investigations by the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog organization that has worked to expose taxpayer funding of controversial animal testing domestically and in projects linked to foreign labs.
WCW revealed NIH grants were being funneled through U.S. institutions like EcoHealth Alliance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, raising concerns about gain-of-function research potentially tied to the origins of COVID-19. Additional investigations by the organization uncovered NIH-funded experiments in Tunisia, where beagles were subjected to excruciating sand fly bites, and in Russia, where cats underwent treadmill tests at a Kremlin-run lab.
Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of White Coat Waste, told Gateway Pundit:
“White Coat Waste investigations first exposed how NIH’s shady spending in foreign labs funded Fauci’s barbaric beagle tests in Tunisia, Putin’s treadmills tests on mutilated cats, and, most infamously, gain-of-function at the Wuhan animal lab. The Biden NIH fought against WCW’s work with Congress to stop this reckless foreign aid. We applaud the Trump Administration and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya for finally stopping U.S. institutions from funneling tax dollars to unaccountable foreign animal labs.”
Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, a Republican, told the Gateway Pundit that this type of secret government spending has allowed “egregious waste” — including paying for gain-of-function research in Wuhan that likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been out front exposing how pass-through grants and secret government spending have allowed egregious waste from Dr. Fauci’s beagle-torture experiments to his funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan, which likely led to the COVID-19 virus,” said Ernst. “It is a great day for America now that tax dollars will no longer be laundered through U.S. institutions to fund risky research overseas. I will continue working to expose and halt funding of our adversaries’ pseudoscience.”
WCW investigations first exposed how Fauci funded gain-of-function at the Wuhan animal lab via a pass-thru grant to the disgraced EcoHealth Alliancehttps://t.co/lOLpMg1YmV pic.twitter.com/XwfIbcsHlx
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 9, 2025
A WCW investigation first exposed how Fauci funded his infamous beagle tests in Tunisia via a pass-thru grant to dog experimenters at Ohio State Uhttps://t.co/ZBx1DyPpQn pic.twitter.com/oVmxF9pDHw
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 9, 2025
A WCW investigation & campaign exposed & ended the NIH’s funding for deadly treadmill experiments on mutilated cats at a Kremlin-run lab in Russia via a grant to Georgia Techhttps://t.co/bGWWEkTjSU pic.twitter.com/jl43rZdfb9
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 9, 2025
Bhattacharya said the agency looks forward to maintaining “strong, productive, and secure foreign collaborations” while ensuring transparency in how federal dollars are spent.
During Trump’s first term in 2018, WCW successfully pushed the FDA to end nicotine addiction tests on monkeys, retire the animals to a sanctuary, and establish an agency-wide lab animal retirement policy in 2020. The organization also played a key role in dramatically reducing the FDA’s in-house primate testing, culminating in the closure of its largest monkey lab in 2023.
This care for animals has continued under his second term, with the Trump administration phasing out animal testing at both the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. They have also cancelled grants for many cruel research projects, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
The post NIH Ends Secretive Pass-Through Funding to Foreign Labs, Which Previously Funded the Wuhan Lab and Fauci’s Beagle Experiments appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.