Taxpayer, BIG things happening over here!

I know we’ve been really intense these last few months, asking for more fundraising and advocacy help than ever before.

Well, it’s paying off! Democrats and Republicans just can’t agree on anything, but EVERYONE now agrees with you on this:

Taxpayer, that’s the title of the latest op-ed I co-wrote with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).

She’s leading the fight to pass Delilah’s Law: the new bipartisan bill to permanently block all government animal testing labs from spending your money in China’s "wet markets."

It’s an amazing read – so I’ve forwarded it for you below.

Taxpayer, you’re making noise. Congress is listening. And with your continued support, we can pass Delilah’s Law and cut China off... FOREVER!

Because taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay $20+ billion for wasteful government animal experiments,

Anthony Bellotti
President | Founder
White Coat Waste Project

OPINION

Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying China to make them sick

Despite years of warnings about serious safety issues at China's wet markets and at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, U.S. government agencies continued to spend taxpayer dollars at both — wasting your money and putting all the world's health at risk of COVID-19.

This has to stop, and we've got a plan to do it.

Let's start with the nasty truth: China's wet markets are filthy, inhumane supermarkets of sickness, where live animals, including cats and dogs, are sold, slaughtered, and butchered for human consumption. Scientists have long warned that China’s wet markets are unsafe and could release a deadly pathogen into the world. In fact, nearly two decades ago, SARS was believed to have made the leap from animals to humans at a wet market in China.

Ever since, scientists have been warning that another, far more virulent virus could be transmitted from wildlife to humans if these wet markets were not shut down. Shockingly, instead of urging China to shut down these pandemic petri dishes as it should have, previous administrations were willing wet market customers. For over a decade, the U.S. government spent taxpayer dollars to buy cats and dogs at China’s wet markets and slaughterhouses and then bring their body parts back to the United States — in carry-on luggage, no less. Thankfully, the Trump administration shut down the kitten slaughterhouse last year.

Last month, the White Coat Waste Project revealed that part of a $3.7 million National Institutes of Health grant had been funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for dangerous and secretive coronavirus experiments. This occurred despite repeated warnings from State Department officials who had visited the lab that it was dangerous due to lax safety practices and posed a serious public health threat.

Just days after the exposé, President Trump put an end to that scary spending. But now, we need to make this permanent, so that a future administration can’t go back to wasting hard-earned tax dollars at China’s wet markets or labs. Right now, we’re collaborating with more than 50 members of the Senate and House to ensure that no COVID-19 relief funding or other tax dollars are ever again spent on the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

At the same time, we’re gearing up to introduce new bipartisan legislation prohibiting one more American cent from being spent on puppy parts, cats, or any other animals from the unregulated, unhealthy, and inhumane wet markets in China.

The lab in Wuhan and China's wet markets both present extreme risks to people’s health and livelihoods; taxpayers shouldn’t be financing them. We’re grateful this administration has brought some common sense to this issue that past administrations failed to do and isn’t funding either the Wuhan lab or the wet market. Now, we want to be sure that what has happened in the past will never happen again.

Joni Ernst, a combat veteran, is Iowa's junior U.S. senator. Anthony Bellotti is the founder and president of the White Coat Waste Project, a 2-million-member taxpayer watchdog group.