Appropriations legislation expected to be signed into law by President Trump by the end of the week includes historic language directing several federal agencies to curb their use of animal research.

The bipartisan spending deal announced by lawmakers on Monday consists of 2,300 pages of bill text outlining $1.37 trillion in federal funding for 2020. The House passed the bills Tuesday in two packages, which will likely be followed by Senate passage on Thursday and a signature from the president before federal funding runs out on Friday.

The legislation instructs the National Institutes of Health, housed under the Department of Health and Human Services, to work toward reducing and replacing its taxpayer-funded experiments on primates with equivalent alternative methods. The agency, which has come under fire for repeatedly violating spending transparency law, spends more tax dollars experimenting on primates than any other government agency.

Spending legislation also repeats language that was included in the final full-year spending bills for 2018 and 2019, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to extend restrictions on its controversial canine testing. The department will continue to have to gain explicit approval from the VA secretary to conduct dog experiments and will now also have to do the same for research involving cats and primates. In a historic move, Congress is also requesting a plan by Dec. 31, 2020, for the VA to “eliminate or reduce” the department's cat, dog, and primate use within five years.

Also included in the final spending package is language approved by the House Appropriations Committee over the summer calling for the Food and Drug Administration to provide a plan for the reduction of its primate testing and the retirement of monkeys.

"As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I’m proud that measures I supported to hold federal agencies accountable for reducing harmful experiments on dogs and primates have been included in the final spending deal for fiscal year 2020," California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert told the Washington Examiner in an email. "For the sake of animal welfare and public health, we need to ensure that the government’s efforts to curb wasteful animal tests aren’t just lip service."

"This bill puts us one step closer to ending dog testing at the VA once and for all,” Nevada Democrat Rep. Dina Titus said in an email. “This accomplishment is worth celebrating, but we must keep fighting to eliminate these barbaric practices that inflict severe pain on animals without producing any discernible medical advances.”

Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who has led efforts to reduce canine testing at the VA alongside Titus, echoed that sentiment.

"It’s unacceptable for the Department of Veterans Affairs to use taxpayer dollars to fund cruel, unnecessary experiments on animals at the VA," the Army combat veteran said in an email. "These painful—often deadly—tests have gone on long enough, and it’s about time we worked together to end them for good. Protecting cats and dogs is common sense, and I’m glad we were able to come together to get this done."

The appropriations legislation comes as several federal agencies have been criticized lately for conducting costly animal research opposed by most taxpayers on their dime. Many of the experiments involve painful tests that have been denounced as unnecessary by some experts on the matter. Opponents to animal testing applauded Congress's latest move.

"Medical research has saved the lives of veterans and others for decades. Over those decades, technology has improved how that research is conducted, including alternatives to doing painful experiments on the same animals we keep as pets and rely on as service dogs," said Sherman Gillums Jr., retired U.S. Marine Corps officer and chief advocacy officer at American Veterans.

"AMVETS appreciates the lawmakers in the House and Senate who are demanding greater accountability in how taxpayers dollars are spent in order to modernize and improve VA research," he told the Washington Examiner in an email.

Taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project also commended lawmakers, with Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Justin Goodman pointing out that "a growing majority of Americans—including our 2 million taxpayer advocates—don’t want the government squandering billions of their tax dollars to give puppies heart attacks, cripple kittens or addict monkeys to street drugs in wasteful experiments."

"The historic, hard-won measures we worked with Congress to include in the 2020 spending package will ensure that the NIH, VA and FDA are actively working to eliminate this government-funded animal abuse, and that lawmakers and taxpayers can hold them accountable," he wrote in an email.