A bipartisan duo in Washington is taking aim at the thousands of monkeys entering the U.S. each year, arguing the trade is a ticking time bomb for the next major disease outbreak. Representatives Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, and Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat, officially introduced the PRIMATE Act on Thursday.
The bill seeks to shut down the importation of nonhuman primates for research, citing deep concerns over biosecurity and public health.
The “Preventing Risky Importation of Monkeys to Avoid Toxic Exposures Act” would amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to ban these imports across the board. While the bill includes exceptions for accredited zoos, it would effectively cut off the supply chain for laboratories.
To back this up, the legislation gives U.S. Customs and Border Protection the power to seize illegal shipments and slaps violators with fines reaching $50,000 per primate.
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The move follows several years of high-volume imports. Between 2021 and 2024, nearly 100,000 monkeys were brought into the U.S. for laboratory testing. Lawmakers point to supply chains in countries like China, where they say poor disease monitoring and illegal trafficking increase the risk of pathogens like tuberculosis, Salmonella, and the herpes B virus entering American communities.
“Americans shouldn’t have to worry about dangerous diseases entering our country through imported primates from countries we don’t trust to handle biosecurity risks,” Representative Steube said. He described the trade as an “outdated practice” that puts taxpayers at risk.
Congresswoman Titus framed the issue as both a safety concern and an ethical one. She noted that the bill encourages a shift toward modern, human-relevant research methods that don’t involve live animals. “The humane treatment of monkeys is not just the responsible thing to do, it is also the right thing to do,” she stated.
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The push for the PRIMATE Act is also fueled by recent local scandals. In Immokalee, Florida, a facility faced federal violations after monkeys died from overheating.
In Miami, a monkey was accidentally sent to a medical waste facility. Experts supporting the bill, such as Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, argue that current quarantine protocols are simply not enough to catch every infection before a worker is exposed.
Animal advocacy groups and scientists have lined up behind the bill, including PETA and professors from Emory University. They argue that the global trafficking of primates is no longer compatible with modern science or public safety standards. If the bill passes, the Secretary of the Treasury will have one year to finalize the new regulations.
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