- A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation, first published by the Daily Caller, reveals the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is still funding Margaret Livingstone’s Harvard primate lab.
- On its new website, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claims NIH “cut funding” in May 2025 for studies that included sewing young monkeys’ eyes shut.
- Federal spending databases show $2.7 million in additional NIH funding across three Livingstone-led grants after NIH announced the cut in May 2025.
- A fourth grant that supported Livingstone’s eyelid-suturing experiments received a no-cost extension on January 20, 2026 — moving its end date from March 31, 2026, to March 31, 2027.
- Despite the official narrative pushed by HHS and PETA, Livingstone’s funding was caught in a mass termination of Harvard grants that a federal court overturned in September 2025 — yet HHS continued touting the Livingstone “cut” as a milestone in September 2026.
- As WCW documented in MAHA Betrayed, the key to NIH accountability is simple: follow the receipts, not the rhetoric.
The [HHS] website falsely touts this termination of research by Harvard Medical School neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone
— The Daily Caller, September 23, 2026
Timeline
April 17, 2025: NIH awards a new 5-year grant to Livingstone for primate brain experiments and disburses $576,474 (Payout #R01EY036839).
May 2025: NIH terminates hundreds of Harvard grants, including some of Livingstone’s. PETA recognizes its target on the list and declares victory. NIH highlights Livingstone as evidence of the Trump administration’s new animal testing agenda.
August 7, 2025: NIH awards $615,600 to Livingstone under a grant that supported primate experiments (Payout #R01NS123778).
September 3, 2025: A federal court sets aside the Harvard grant terminations, including the NIH termination letter that swept up Livingstone’s funding.
But nobody corrects the animal testing PR narrative.
September 22, 2025: NIH awards $725,209 to Livingstone under a core vision research grant that supported baby monkey eyelid suturing experiments (Payout #P30EY012196).
January 20, 2026: NIH provides a no-cost extension to Livingstone for a grant that supported baby monkey eyelid suturing experiments (Payout # R01EY025670).
June 1, 2026: NIH awards Livingstone $576,201 for primate brain experiments (Payout #R01EY036839).
July 6, 2026: NIH provides a no-cost extension to Livingstone for a grant that supported primate experiments (Payout # R01NS123778).
September 11, 2026: NIH awards another $850,148 to Livingstone under the core vision research grant that supported baby monkey eyelid suturing experiments (Payout #P30EY012196).
September 21, 2026: HHS unveils its new animal testing website and republishes the May 2025 Livingstone “cut” as a 2026 milestone.
Rhetoric: HHS and PETA Declare Victory
What exactly did HHS and PETA claim about Livingstone — and when?
On September 21, 2026, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS unveiled a new website touting its progress “ending taxpayer-funded animal experiments.”
Among its claimed milestones: NIH “cut funding” in May 2025 to a Harvard lab for studies that included sewing young monkeys’ eyes shut.
Since May 2025, legacy animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has also been taking a victory lap.
As recently as October 5, 2026, PETA was still declaring that “Following PETA’s exposé, protests, and other actions, NIH cut Livingstone’s funding.”
But the receipts uncovered by WCW tell a different story: The lights are still on at the Livingstone lab — and she continues to receive taxpayer funding under RFK.
Receipts: NIH Kept the Money Flowing
How do we know RFK is still funding the Livingstone lab?
WCW followed the money. NIH RePORTER identifies Livingstone as the lead researcher on grants that received four additional awards totaling $2,767,158 after that “cut”:
- P30EY012196, a Livingstone-led vision research core grant cited as NIH support in published eyelid-suturing studies: $725,209 on September 22, 2025, and $850,148 on September 11, 2026.
- R01EY036839, a newly awarded Livingstone-led grant to study the primate temporal lobe: $576,201 on June 1, 2026.
- R01NS123778, another Livingstone-led grant supporting primate experiments: $615,600 on August 7, 2025
Two published studies involving macaques subjected to eyelid suturing cite Livingstone-led grant P30EY012196 as NIH support. One reports that two hand-reared monkeys underwent visual deprivation through eyelid suturing during their first year; the other examined its effects on brain development.
This grant provides another revealing date: On January 20, 2026, NIH approved a no-cost extension moving the project’s end date from March 31, 2026, to March 31, 2027. Under RFK, NIH gave the infant macaque project another year to use its existing award.
Reality: The “Cut” That Didn’t Stay Cut
Did Livingstone’s baby monkey experiments actually end when HHS and PETA said they did?
NIH’s May 2025 “cut” did not mark the end of the Harvard grants.
After Harvard challenged the administration’s 2025 funding freeze, a federal judge set aside NIH’s termination letter and the related funding cuts in September 2025.
But the court ruling doesn’t explain the money that followed. NIH’s own grants policy states that the agency has “no legal obligation” to fund a grant beyond its current budget period.
In black and white, NIH states that future funding is not guaranteed beyond each grant’s current budget period. In other words, NIH makes a new and separate decision before each subsequent year’s payout.
[L]evels of future support … are not guarantees by NIH that the project will be funded or will be funded at those levels and create no legal obligation to provide funding beyond the ending date of the current budget period as shown in the NoA.
— NIH Grants Policy Statement
NIH then issued additional awards to Livingstone-led projects — including $576,201 in June 2026 and $850,148 in September 2026 — while HHS and PETA continued claiming Livingstone’s funding had been cut.
Bottom line: the September 2025 court ruling does not explain away the NIH payouts that followed.
So the Daily Caller’s central claim holds: Livingstone’s lab continues to receive NIH money for primate research… The Harvard case shows how far press releases and funding practice can drift apart.
— This Is Vegan, September 28, 2026
Since the Daily Caller exposé, other outlets have documented the gap between HHS’s public claims and NIH’s continued funding of Livingstone-led primate research.
Asked by The Gateway Pundit how a live $850,148 award notice squares with ‘lights out,’ PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo sounded either in denial or like she was covering for the program. Guillermo claimed… PETA verified in 2025 and again today that NIH has pulled this vile woman’s funding and her ability to continue this torture.
— The Gateway Pundit, September 26, 2026
WCW’s MAHA Betrayed investigation documented the same rhetoric-versus-receipts problem: public promises to reduce animal testing followed by more than $225 million in new NIH funding for dog and cat experiments.
Livingstone’s grants raise an obvious question: If RFK says NIH cut her funding, why are taxpayers still paying for Livingstone’s monkey experiments?
And if HHS and PETA are telling the truth — if RFK really did cut and end Livingstone’s baby monkey experiments in May of 2025 — then why won’t he do the same now for dogs and cats?
