The House of Representatives on Friday unanimously passed a coronavirus origins declassification bill, sending the measure to President Joe Biden for his signature.
The bill would require the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to declassify and make public any potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the deadly Coronavirus. The bill was already approved by the Senate on March 1 by unanimous consent.
The act, titled COVID-19 Origin Act, was sent to Biden by a 419-0 House vote. It is unclear if Biden will sign the bipartisan law. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about the bill and referred reporters to the DNI.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says he "can't confirm or deny" an intelligence report from the Department of Energy, which concludes the coronavirus pandemic was likely the result of a Chinese laboratory leak. pic.twitter.com/HunpkrSYEL
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 26, 2023
The bipartisan effort to make public any links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the coronavirus comes after the Wall Street Journal reported the Energy Department had determined that coronavirus most likely came from a laboratory in China. Breitbart News reported:
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday the Energy Department’s revised assessment of the pandemic’s origins is based on fresh intelligence noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
The WSJ further states while the investigation is ongoing, more authorities are coming to the lab leak hypothesis however there is as yet no unanimous decision.
…
The report goes on to say the Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report, however it does align with previous speculation about the exact origin of the virus, as Breitbart News reported.
Republicans have long questioned if the pandemic originated in China. Dating back to 2021, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was one of the strongest skeptics of the establishment media’s narrative that the pandemic did not originate from a Chinese lab.
“The common-sense case for a lab leak is the same as it was in January 2020, when I first mentioned the possibility,” Cotton said then.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has also consistently questioned the narrative. After the Journal’s report, Paul tweeted the leak from the Journal’s report should be declassified. “Classified documents leaked (they should be declassified!) showing scientists at DOE believe COVID leaked from Wuhan Lab,” he tweeted.
The report caused Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to introduce the Senate declassification legislation. “The American people deserve the full truth about #COVID origins. No more whitewash. I will again introduce legislation to make the U.S. government’s intelligence reports on COVID more open to the public,” he tweeted.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.