Bill to declassify all intelligence information on the origins of COVID-19 passes through the Senate and passes unanimously

On Wednesday evening, the US Senate passed a bill requiring the Biden administration to declassify all intelligence related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and possible links to the origin of the COVID-19 virus.

The vote comes after the Department of Energy concluded earlier this week that there was low confidence that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak. Previously, the agency could not determine if there was a link between the work of the laboratory and the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Senate bill, introduced by GOP Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Brown of Indiana, passed unanimously.

“Identifying the origin of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is critical to preventing a similar pandemic from occurring in the future,” the bill says. “The director of national intelligence should declassify and provide the public with as much information as possible about the origin of COVID-19.”

The law also requires the DNI to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the 2019 coronavirus disease,” including activities carried out by the institute on behalf of China’s communist People’s Liberation Army.

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Hawley said in a press release: “For almost three years, anyone who asked if COVID-19 originated from a lab leak was silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist.”

“Now these prudent skeptics are justified,” he continued. “The Biden administration must immediately declassify all intelligence reports regarding the origin of COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The American people deserve to know the truth,” Hawley said.

Brown said: “The Biden administration called the lab leak a conspiracy theory from the start and has only begun to publicly admit they were wrong as the evidence becomes overwhelming.

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“This bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2021, and the Biden administration has continued to keep the origins of COVID under wraps ever since. The American people deserve transparency, freedom from government censorship or the media. It’s time to declassify everything we know about the origin of COVID and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, right now,” Brown added.

The senator urged the House of Representatives to follow the step of the Senate and pass the bill.

“President Biden cannot ignore this: it’s time to let Americans decide for themselves,” Brown wrote.

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Fox News reported that the law is expected to be passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

However, on Wednesday, House Democrats said they oppose the bill, arguing that the decision on what information will be declassified should be left to the Biden administration.

“We believe in allowing jurisdictional committees to guide discussions, work with the administration, and ask the administration the hard questions,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California said Wednesday.

“And when we can do it in a way that can be shared with the American public, we will, but declassification talk is best left to the executive branch,” he said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News in an interview that aired Tuesday: “The FBI has long believed that a potential laboratory incident in Wuhan is the most likely cause of the pandemic.”

“Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled laboratory that killed millions of Americans,” he said.

“It seems to me that the Chinese government is doing everything possible to try and obstruct and confuse” the work that the US government and other countries are doing to determine the origin of COVID-19.

The Associated Press reported that Beijing has dismissed the FBI’s view that COVID-19 is likely the result of a lab leak.

“To paraphrase the lab leak theory, the US will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead will only undermine its credibility,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

“We call on the US to respect science and facts… to stop turning origin tracing into something to do with politics and intelligence, and to stop undermining social solidarity and collaboration on origins,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.

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