His research group has campaigned for ethics bills now being sponsored in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Susan Collins, Republican senator, is sponsoring the Great Ape Protection Act and cost savings, which would put an end to experiments on chimpanzees.
It also mandated the release of chimpanzee sanctuaries owned and bar raising chimpanzees in experiments.
Representative Roscoe Bartlett, a Republican who worked with some of the first chimps in space as a research scientist in the 1950 and 1960, has a companion bill in the House with fellow Republican Rep. Dave Reichert and Democrat Edolphus Towns Israel, Steve and Jim Langevin.
Last year, the European Union banned the use of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans in experiments and restrictions on the use of other primates, following similar measures adopted in Japan, Australia and other rich nations.
About 1,000 chimpanzees remaining in U.S. laboratories, including half belonging to the National Institutes government-run Health.
Their numbers are declining due to the ban on captive breeding and due to the importation of them is against the law.
Some researchers continue to mount a vigorous defense of the use of animals such as mice and chimpanzees in laboratories to further medical research.
"We have made great progress in hepatitis research with chimps," said the Southwest National Primate Research Center director John VandeBerg The Washington Post in an interview published last month.
He said the experiments led to the development of "many drugs for the treatment of hepatitis B and C."
For their experiments, chimpanzees infected with hepatitis underwent two medical examinations where blood was drawn to measure levels of virus, while two-needle biopsy of liver tissue removed for examination.
"The rights of animals makes it seem like a horrible thing to do," VandeBerg said. "It's a very simple clinical procedure. It is not painful."