H.R. 1657: Humane Cosmetics Act of 2025

H.R. 1657 — the Humane Cosmetics Act of 2025 — would do three things one year after enactment. It would make it illegal to knowingly conduct or contract for cosmetic animal testing in the United States. It would block the sale or interstate shipment of any cosmetic developed or made using new animal tests anywhere in the supply chain. And it would generally bar companies from using post-effective-date animal-test data to prove a cosmetic is safe.

The ban is strict but not absolute. Four exceptions survive: testing required by foreign regulators, testing the FDA's parent agency formally requests after a 60-day public-comment process, testing for products regulated as drugs, and testing required for non-cosmetic purposes by any federal, state, or foreign regulator. Under the foreign-regulator carveout, companies can keep running animal tests abroad if a country like China requires them, and continue selling those products elsewhere.

Civil penalties run up to $10,000 per violation. The bill stacks the math: each animal counts as a separate offense, and each day a violation continues is its own offense too.

The state-preemption clause is where the politics gets contested. More than a dozen states already ban cosmetic animal testing, some with broader scope or fewer exemptions than the federal version. Under H.R. 1657, those states could only enforce rules identical to the federal ones, even if their existing laws are tougher. The bill has 118 cosponsors and bipartisan presence, but the foreign-testing exception and the preemption language are the two pieces most likely to draw scrutiny in committee.