{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-urges-hhs-to-investigate-grant-renewal-to-primate-research-center-with-history-of-serious-violations", "Booker Urges HHS to Investigate Grant Renewal to Primate Research Center with History of Serious Violations", "2022-10-11", "2022", "2022-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate the National Institutes of Health Office of Director\u2019s oversight and approval of the base operational funding grant, called the P51, to the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington.\n\nThe renewal of the P51 base grant comes after The Arizona Republic and other media outlets exposed WaNPRC\u2019s failure to maintain biosecurity, repeated animal welfare violations, financial issues with taxpayer funds, and failure to comply with both federal and state laws.\n\n\u201cDespite all of these issues, many of which have direct consequences for public health and scientific integrity, NIH has decided to invest significant additional taxpayer funds in the WaNPRC,\u201d wrote Senator Booker in the letter to Secretary of HHS Xavier Becerra. \u201cAn investigation into the oversight and approval process would shed much-needed light on why this deeply troubled facility continues to receive federal funding.\u201d\n\nIn addition to urging for an investigation, Senator Booker requested HHS to respond to a series of questions relating to NIH\u2019s oversight and approval process of this grant.\n\nThe full text of the letter can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:20:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-urges-hhs-to-investigate-grant-renewal-to-primate-research-center-with-history-of-serious-violations"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7323578465729952, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}