No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section requires each animal care committee of an NIH-funded biomedical and behavioral research entity to file annually with the NIH Director—beginning two years after enactment—a form reporting the total number of animals bred, housed, and used in the preceding fiscal year, broken down by common species names and numbers in four categories: (1) those used in teaching, research, experiments, or tests involving no pain, distress, or pain-relieving drugs (including routine procedures such as injections, tattooing, and blood sampling); (2) those involving pain or distress with appropriate anesthetic, analgesic, or tranquilizing drugs; (3) those involving pain or distress where such drugs would adversely affect the procedures, results, or interpretation of the research; and (4) those bred, conditioned, or held for such purposes but not yet used. (As background, such committees currently review animal care and treatment semi-annually and file certifications of those reviews plus reports of continuing violations annually with NIH.) The NIH Director must provide the reporting form to committees and, not later than three months after receipt, publish each filed form online in a publicly accessible and searchable database. (Thus, the amendment enhances transparency of animal use data in federally funded research.)