BILL WOULD EXPAND PENALTIES FOR HINDERING ANIMAL RESEARCH
A bipartisan Senate coalition is trying to expand criminal penalties for violence against researchers and businesses involved with animal studies in an effort to stem an increase in such acts, which lawmakers say undermine medical innovation.
Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other lawmakers introduced the bill, the "Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act," S.3880, because of recent incidents where researchers conducting animal studies and the companies they deal with came under attack by animal advocates. Changes are necessary because current laws are insufficient to dissuade these attacks, which not only threaten the people involved, but also slow the development of new treatments, the lawmakers said. These actions have "threatened to impede important medical research and scientific innovation," Feinstein said in a Sept. 8 statement.
The bill expands criminal penalties to apply not only to attacks on researchers, but on attacks directed at third parties such as banks, insurance companies and telecom companies. The legislation also criminalizes threats, harassment or other illegal activity that uses interstate commerce. Additionally, the bill would establish a sliding scale of penalties based on the level of financial damage or bodily injury caused. Guilty parties would also be ordered to pay restitution for the cost of repeating experiments and other losses resulting from this conduct.
Proponents such as the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) are optimistic that the bill could pass before the midterm elections in November. The bill and its House companion, H.R. 4239, have no known opposition in either chamber, Frankie Trull, NABR's executive director said. "It's just a time issue."