In the wake of growing support for the idea that COVID-19 originated in a lab in China, U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) is reintroducing a bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the pandemic.
Gallagher’s COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 comes back as the U.S. Department of Energy concludes at least with some confidence that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak. The agency came to that conclusion based on a classified intelligence report provided to the White House and certain members of Congress.
FBI Director Christopher Wray this week told Fox News the virus that has killed more than 1 million people in the United States alone likely originated from a lab in China.
“It’s been three years since COVID-19 upended our lives and we’re still asking basic questions about the origins of this virus. That’s unacceptable,” said Gallagher, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, “The question of how this pandemic began is the most important question in the world, and we should not continue to waste precious time waiting for the Chinese Communist Party to suddenly cooperate with U.S. officials and open up access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
The bill is co-sponsored by: Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Chris Stewart (R-UT), John Rutherford (R-FL), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Mark Green (R-TN), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), August Pfluger (R-TX), and Daniel Webster (R-FL).
The Senate companion to the bill, introduced earlier this week by Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Mike Braun (R-IN), passed the Senate unanimously Wednesday night.
“For nearly three years, anyone asking whether COVID-19 originated as a lab leak outbreak was silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist. Now these prudent skeptics stand vindicated,” Hawley said in a press release. “The Biden administration must immediately declassify all intelligence reports pertaining to the origins of COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The American people deserve to know the truth.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Mike Gallagher” by Mike Gallagher. Background Photo “Wuhan Institute of Virology” by Ureem2805. CC BY-SA 4.0.
