House Dems this week blocked a Republican bill which would have required the DNI to declassify information in connection to the US government’s research into the Chinese covid pandemic – and especially, what role the Chinese Virology Institute might have played in the outbreak.
The bill did not succeed in the House, losing with a vote of 216 to 207.
The Covid Origin Act was proposed in the Senate by Republican Josh Hawley (MO) and Republican Mike Braun (IN), and was passed back in May. Then, it was pushed into the House by Congressmen Michael Burgess (R-TX) along with Darin LaHood (R-IL) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH).
“The best disinfectant is sun and that is what we can give today,” said Wenstrup. “The bill first says we must find the true source of COVID-19 because it is crucial for preventing another pandemic in the future.”
“I cannot say this enough that this measure is not controversial at all,” he said. “In fact, it succeeded the Senate back in May with unanimous approval — not a single senator objected. Not Senators Rand Paul or Ted Cruz, not Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. If those four people can agree to this bill, should we not be able to do this same thing?”
FLOOR ALERT: @HouseDemocrats blocked @HouseGOP requests to declassify intelligence on the origins of COVID-19 & #ChineseCommunistParty's subsequent cover-up. The Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed the bill 5⃣5⃣ days ago…what is the Speaker afraid of? #HoldChinaAccountable pic.twitter.com/uOzbadQ41q
— House Rules Committee (@RulesReps) July 20, 2021
I joined @RepBradWenstrup to request consideration of legislation to declassify the intelligence related to COVID-19 origins & hold China accountable – a bill the Senate unanimously passed. Americans deserve full transparency about COVID-19 origins, but Dems blocked our request. pic.twitter.com/4N2p57f7yd
— Darin LaHood (@RepLaHood) July 20, 2021
Back In April, Hawley said that “for over one year, anyone asking questions about the Chinese Institute of Virology has been called a conspiracy theorist,” adding “America needs to find out if this pandemic was because of negligence at the Chinese lab but the CCP has done everything they can to stop a credible investigation. That is why the Biden admin. must declassify what it understands about the Chinese lab and Beijing’s efforts to cover up the source of the pandemic.”
As we have said, ,,”House Dems’ vote to stop transparency comes only days after the WHO pushed China to go along with their second inquiry into the virus’s source, citing past difficulty working with the Chinese regime when the country refused to hand over raw data with the WHO during the initial round of investigations.
Author: Scott Dowdy
