Bill Maher Tells Congress to Get Real About Ending Chimpanzee Experiments

TV personality Bill Maher recently told Congress that “it’s time to get real about ending invasive experiments on chimpanzees.” He wrote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and asked him to help pass the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act to phase out chimpanzee experiments.

“Nearly 1,000 chimpanzees are locked in laboratory cages across our nation right now—many are elderly and have spent decades trapped behind bars,” wrote Maher.

In April, Congress held a hearing on the bill, which now has more than 175 co-sponsors in the House and Senate. The room was packed with Members of Congress and staffers who learned about the Institute of Medicine’s report finding that there is no area of human health research for which chimpanzee experiments are clearly necessary.

Martin Wasserman, M.D., J.D., who served as state health secretary for Maryland and Oregon, testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife:“The National Institutes of Health has taken the Institute of Medicine report seriously, and they are to be applauded for their efforts. But theirs is the response of current leadership, and—as we all know—administrations change, leaders change, and policies change. Passage of this bill is essential to ensure that the unnecessary use of chimpanzees in invasive experimentation will not occur in the future.”

Martin Wasserman, M.D., J.D.; PCRM government affairs manager Noah Gittell; director of public affairs Elizabeth Kucinich; and research policy specialist Noelle Callahan at the hearing.