Goodman Testimony

Summary

Written testimony of Justin R. Goodman, Senior Vice President of White Coat Waste, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on March 18, 2026, for a hearing titled Sunshine Week: Bringing Secret Government Spending to Light. The testimony argues that federal spending transparency tools such as USASpending, NIH RePORTER and FOIA help identify waste, citing a $1.8 million SBIR contract that budgeted dog testing and at least $86 million in SBIR funding in Fiscal Year 2025 that the group describes as unnecessary dog testing. It urges broader federal funding disclosure rules and references Senator Ernst's COST Act. The witness also asks for SBA scrutiny of $11 million in PPP loans to Envigo and $1.7 million in forgiven PPP loans to EcoHealth Alliance.

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                              Written testimony of Justin R. Goodman

                              Senior Vice President, White Coat Waste

                                                 before the

                U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

                                                concerning

              “Sunshine Week: Bringing Secret Government Spending to Light”

                                             March 18, 2026

Good afternoon, Chair Ernst, Ranking Member Markey, and distinguished members of the
Committee.

I am the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy at the nonprofit, non-partisan
government watchdog group White Coat Waste. Our sole mission is to find, expose, and defund
approximately $20 billion in animal testing bankrolled each year by the federal government.

In recognition of Sunshine Week, I am honored to testify before you today about how
transparency helps identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in programs funded by the
Small Business Administration and other agencies—and even protect dogs from abuse in
laboratories.

We believe that taxpayers have a right to know how their hard-earned money is being spent, so
they can hold their government accountable for waste.

When it comes to transparency, there is obviously much room for improvement, as I will discuss.
But there are also many important tools—albeit imperfect ones—available that have already
helped us root out abuse and save taxpayers’ money and animals’ lives.

Let me briefly highlight one example that demonstrates why transparency tools are so critical for
congressional oversight:

Back in 2022, using the federal spending transparency databases USASpending and NIH
RePORTER, White Coat Waste uncovered how Dr. Anthony Fauci’s division of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) had awarded a $1.8 million Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) contract to a biotech company to develop a new seasonal allergy drug.1,2


1
 https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75N93021C00044_7529_-NONE-_-NONE-
2
 https://blog.whitecoatwaste.org/2022/05/23/killed-for-a-runny-nose-wcw-discovers-5-new-fauci-funded-puppy-
experiments/
This discovery was only the starting point, however. Because of systemic gaps in reporting
requirements on these federal databases, the available details were sparse. So, we submitted a
Freedom of Information Act request for more details.

The FOIA records confirmed that the NIH-approved SBIR contract budgeted for a series of drug
tests on 6-month-old puppies, the results of which would be included in a new drug application
to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

More troubling still, the records also revealed that the company admitted internally that the
planned dog use—which was blessed and funded by the NIH—was completely unnecessary.

We shared the documents with, Senator Ernst’s office, and Senator Ernst quickly fired off a letter
to Dr. Fauci.3 Within weeks, Fauci personally responded to Senator Ernst.4 His letter admitted
that the NIH reviewed and approved the SBIR contract for dog testing, but that the dog tests his
team greenlit were now being canceled following further scrutiny and conversations with
FDA.5,6 In fact, the allergy drug reached human trials without any testing on dogs.

Without FOIA, USASpending, and NIH RePORTER—despite their limitations—puppies would
have been cruelly abused in SBIR-funded drug tests that were completely unnecessary and even
may have led to the puppies’ deaths just to study a hay fever drug.

More recently, triangulating data using the same transparency tools—and others like the SBIR’s
searchable database—we uncovered that wasteful SBIR spending on unnecessary dog testing
remains widespread.

In fact, we’ve identified at least $86 million in SBIR funding awarded by NIH in Fiscal Year
2025 to biotech companies for unnecessary testing on dogs.

It’s currently impossible to pinpoint the total amount due to disclosure deficiencies on public
spending databases, which barely require any details in grant and contract descriptions and
completely exempt some funding from being reported at all.

Even with limited disclosures, we’ve shown that in these SBIR-funded tests, dogs—including
newborn puppies as young as three weeks old—are being injected with experimental drugs or
force-fed massive doses of them by having tubes shoved down their throats. Dogs are being
injected with fentanyl, having their skulls drilled into to test bone glue, and subjected to other
abuses.7



3
  https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_national_institute_of_allergy_and_infectious_diseases.pdf
4
  https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/6-22-22%20Fauci%20NIH%20Response.pdf
5
  https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/nih-nixes-painful-puppy-experiments-after-free-beacon-report/
6
  https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/after-ernst-raised-concerns-fauci-to-end-his-taxpayer-funded-
experiments-on-dogs
7
  https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/771796/despite-promises-feds-still-funding-sick-and-unnecessary-beagle-
testing/
Tens of millions in SBIR funding continues to be spent for expensive, wasteful dog tests even
though the FDA has stated that it “does not mandate that human drugs be studied in dogs” and
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has said, “Why are we testing every single drug
on...dogs, usually beagles? Because they’re obedient…It’s sad and it’s unnecessary.”8,9

This wasteful SBIR-funded dog testing continues even though legislation championed by
Senators Paul, Booker and Schiff was enacted in 2022 to remove FDA’s outdated animal testing
mandate.10

White Coat Waste’s investigations into SBIR funding have also disproved claims by NIH
officials that funding for dog testing “predates” them, and we prompted action from a bipartisan
group of lawmakers to try and stop it.

Many of these SBIR-funded companies wasting tax dollars on dog testing have also violated
longstanding federal spending disclosure law, which requires certain grantees to disclose federal
funding details in press releases and other public communications.

For instance, documents White Coat Waste obtained through FOIA show that one biotech
company co-founded and run in part by Moderna’s billionaire cofounder recently received $1.2
million in SBIR funding from NIH to test an experimental weight loss pill on dogs.11 But the
public wouldn’t know they paid for it because the company violated the law by not disclosing its
SBIR funding in press releases about the drug. 12

This federal spending disclosure requirement was first enacted in 1989 for Departments of
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education grantees and was more recently extended to
SBA and the Department of Defense following provisions authored by Senator Ernst. 13,14,15 This
transparency mandate should be standard across the government and include penalties for
noncompliance, including withholding of federal funds. Senator Ernst’s Cost Openness and
Spending Transparency (COST) Act would do that.

Our investigations have also identified potential SBA fraud that warrants further scrutiny and
demonstrates the importance of Senator Ernst’s SBA Fraud Enforcement Extension Act. 16 .



8
  https://wjla.com/features/i-team/animals-drug-testing-fda-labs-animals
9
  https://youtu.be/6ADZVghf7wc?si=u1e1sgqUc1Fbke95&t=46
10
   https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-pauls-bipartisan-fda-modernization-act-2-0-to-end-animal-testing-mandates-
included-in-2022-year-end-legislation/
11
   https://reporter.nih.gov/search/IDzGguEJRUWn7Vjb4xwxaA/project-details/11005815 and
12
   https://syntis.bio/syntis-bio-releases-new-data-supporting-potential-of-synt-101-as-a-once-daily-oral-treatment-
for-obesity-at-european-congress-on-obesity-and-weight-management/ and
https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/syntis-bio-announces-first-patient-dosed-in-phase-1-1b-clinical-trial-of-
synt-101-in-obesity-and-key-leadership-additions
13
   https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-282
14
   https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-demands-sba-put-a-price-tag-on-projects-funded-by-
taxpayers
15
   https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-taxpayers-win-in-the-war-on-waste-in-annual-defense-bill
16
   https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1199
In 2024, citing White Coat Waste research, House Small Business Committee member Rep. Pete
Stauber requested an investigation by the SBA’s Inspector General into potential Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP) fraud by a notorious beagle breeder named Envigo.17 White Coat
Waste had exposed the company supplied laboratories operated and funded by the NIH and other
federal agencies.18

In 2020 and 2021, Envigo was awarded $11 million in PPP loans to help retain staff during the
COVID pandemic. Then, in 2022, Envigo’s beagle mill in Virginia was investigated and shut
down by federal authorities for neglecting and abusing beagles through 2021 and 2022 because,
according to the DOJ, in part, “the facility was understaffed.” The company pled guilty to
violating federal law, surrendered more than 4,000 dogs, and received a record fine of $35
million.19

If Envigo did not spend the PPP funds to adequately staff its beagle facility, where did the money
go?

Unfortunately, the Biden administration never responded to Rep. Stauber’s letter about potential
PPP fraud.

The SBA should also investigate the $1.7 million in forgiven PPP loans awarded to EcoHealth
Alliance. This is the shady nonprofit that White Coat Waste first exposed funneled taxpayer
dollars to the Wuhan lab for dangerous gain-of-function animal experiments that intelligence
agencies in both the Trump and Biden administrations believe likely caused COVID.20,21,22,23,24

In January 2025, based in part on documents obtained by White Coat Waste through FOIA, EHA
was debarred for 5 years by the Biden Administration to “protect the Federal Government’s
business interests” with HHS stating, “EHA has not demonstrated...that it is presently
responsible to be a steward of federal funds.” 25 In addition to mismanaging an animal testing
grant to China that may have caused a pandemic and obstructing investigations into COVID’s
origins, EHA’s shady activity included charging taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for
luxury flights.26




17
   https://stauber.house.gov/media/press-releases/stauber-calls-investigation-potential-abuse-paycheck-protection-
program-funds
18
   https://www.wric.com/news/taking-action/what-happens-to-some-of-the-envigo-dogs-taxpayer-funded-research-
exposed/
19
   https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/animal-breeder-sentenced-animal-welfare-and-water-pollution-crimes-will-
pay-more-35m
20
   https://blog.whitecoatwaste.org/2021/04/16/from-ppp-to-ppp-org-that-shipped-your-tax-to-the-wuhan-animal-lab-
got-another-pandemic-bailout-check/
21
   https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_1177998506_073
22
   https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_4826187704_073
23
   https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/white-coat-waste-anthony-fauci-nih-ecohealth-alliance-lab
24
   https://blog.whitecoatwaste.org/2021/11/04/bombshell-wcw-foia-investigation-proves-nih-ignored-gof-research-
wuhan-lab-funder-calls-it-terrific/
25
   https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ARM_EHA_1.17.2025_Redacted.pdf
26
   https://usrtk.org/risky-research/intrepid-virus-hunter-peter-daszak-flies-in-style/
White Coat Waste’s investigation into NIH funding for the Wuhan lab also documented how
EHA repeatedly violated the law by not disclosing its federal funding and secured records
supporting Senator Paul’s allegation that Dr. Fauci lied under oath when he stated he did not
fund gain-of-function research in China.27,28

In closing, Sunshine Week reminds us that transparency is not an abstract principle—it is a
practical tool that protects taxpayers, strengthens oversight, exposes waste—and can even save
puppies’ lives.

When the government turns on the lights, waste and abuse have nowhere left to hide.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to answering your questions and
working with the Committee to improve transparency and accountability about how taxpayers’
money is spent.




27
   https://blog.whitecoatwaste.org/2023/05/11/wcw-busts-ecohealth-again-for-secretive-scary-spending-in-wuhan-
and-beyond/
28
   https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/reps/senator-rand-paul-re-refers-dr-anthony-fauci-to-the-department-of-
justice/


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