Rep. Eli Crane stunned at ‘insane’ sum in taxpayer funds used for transgender animal studies

At least $241 million in taxpayer funds was spent on transgender surgeries and animal experiments, prompting a congressional lawmaker to question the rationale behind the expenditures.

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., on Wednesday, said spending millions on such treatments was “insane, right?”

During a Feb. 6 House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing titled: “Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty,” earlier this month, Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) watchdog group said the federal government spent millions on “transgender animal testing.”

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“I would say that’s the floor, not the ceiling,” Goodman told Crane. 

“In a lot of these cases, they involve mice, rats, monkeys, who are being surgically mutilated and subjected to hormone therapies to mimic female to male or male to female gender transitions, gender-affirming hormone therapies, and then looking at the biological, psychological and physiological effects of the gender transitions, looking at the effects of taking vaccines after you’ve transitioned these animals from male to female or female to male, looking at the size of their genitals changing after you’ve put them on estrogen or testosterone therapies to transition them,” he added. 

In one instance, a $1.1 million grant was handed out to give female lab rats testosterone to mimic transgender male humans and observed to determine if they are likely to overdose on a rape drug, he said. 

“Anthony Fauci lied to the American people about masks, vaccines, social distancing, gain-of-function research, and the origins of COVID-19,” Crane said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “On top of these egregious actions, he also authorized more than $200 million of taxpayer funds for ‘transgender animal testing’.”

“Hardworking Americans are sick of these disgusting uses of their resources. Congress must return to single-subject spending bills, so we can permanently cut these fraudulent programs line-by-line.” he added. 

Goodman said that many of the taxpayer-funded animal studies aren’t easily accessible to the public. 

“You essentially need a degree in information technology to navigate the federal spending databases to find any of this stuff,” he said, adding that the databases aren’t transparent “by design.”

Goodman said the WCW estimates that more than $20 billion has been spent on ineffective animal research. 

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), funded 95% of the transgender animal experiments, Goodman said, citing a WCW analysis.

In 2024, $10 million was spent on creating transgender animals, a study by the White Coat Waste Project revealed. 

“Last year, the White Coat Waste Project exposed more than $10 million in taxpayer funds that were spent creating transgender mice, rats and monkeys,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., at the hearing. “These DEI grants funded painful and deadly transgender experiments that forced lab animals to undergo invasive surgeries and hormone therapies at universities across the country.”

Mace then criticized the Biden administration’s agenda for allowing taxpayer dollars to fund “surgically mutating animal genitals.”

“The U.S. government spends in excess of $20 billion a year conducting experiments on animals,” Mace said. “We spent over $1 million to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug. That’s what your taxpayer dollars were being spent on.”

Goodman noted that animal testing is incredibly “inaccurate and expensive” and “not very good at projecting the human health effects or environmental effects of chemicals and pesticides.” He also noted that the Biden administration overturned a Trump-era plan to phase out animal testing. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Crane’s office.