[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 46 (Friday, March 10, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1255-H1260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COVID-19 ORIGIN ACT OF 2023
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 199, I call
up the bill (S. 619) to require the Director of National Intelligence
to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID-19, and for
other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 199, the bill
is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 619
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``COVID-19 Origin Act of
2023''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) is critical for preventing a similar pandemic from
occurring in the future;
(2) there is reason to believe the COVID-19 pandemic may
have originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; and
(3) the Director of National Intelligence should declassify
and make available to the public as much information as
possible about the origin of COVID-19 so the United States
and like-minded countries can--
(A) identify the origin of COVID-19 as expeditiously as
possible, and
(B) use that information to take all appropriate measures
to prevent a similar pandemic from occurring again.
SEC. 3. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO THE ORIGIN
OF COVID-19.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall--
(1) declassify any and all information relating to
potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and
the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),
including--
(A) activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology
with or on behalf of the People's Liberation Army;
(B) coronavirus research or other related activities
performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the
outbreak of COVID-19; and
(C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who fell
ill in autumn 2019, including for any such researcher--
(i) the researcher's name;
(ii) the researcher's symptoms;
(iii) the date of the onset of the researcher's symptoms;
(iv) the researcher's role at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology;
(v) whether the researcher was involved with or exposed to
coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology;
(vi) whether the researcher visited a hospital while they
were ill; and
(vii) a description of any other actions taken by the
researcher that may suggest they were experiencing a serious
illness at the time; and
(2) submit to Congress an unclassified report that
contains--
(A) all of the information described under paragraph (1);
and
(B) only such redactions as the Director determines
necessary to protect sources and methods.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 1 hour
equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member
of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence or their respective
designees.
The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner) and the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Himes), each will control 30 minutes.
The chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner).
{time} 0915
General Leave
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert
into the Record extraneous material on S. 619.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of S. 619, a bill that would require
the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information
relating to the origin of COVID-19. The House companion bill, H.R.
1376, passed unanimously out of the Intelligence Committee.
I thank Ranking Member Himes for his dedication to bipartisanship and
professionalism as we work together to try to ensure that the
Intelligence Committee responds to the needs of the House.
Madam Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the
country, with almost every household feeling its effects. The United
States death toll from this virus has surpassed 1 million people.
Although concrete data is hard to lock down, millions of Americans
are suffering from the long-term effects directly attributed to this
virus.
COVID-19 has also negatively affected our communities, especially our
kids. It has become increasingly clear that school-age children face
major educational hurdles because of distance learning and long-term
school closures.
The American public deserves answers to every aspect of the COVID-19
pandemic, including how this virus was created, and specifically,
whether it was a natural occurrence or was the result of a lab-related
event.
The House Intelligence Committee which oversees our intelligence
community is aware of classified information that could help inform the
public why COVID-19 as a lab leak theory is not just a possibility but
approaches the idea that it is likely.
The intelligence community does have more information about COVID-19
than the public is led to believe. Much of the information they have
can be declassified and disseminated to the public. In fact, the bill
we are discussing today would give the American public just a glimpse,
albeit a very important aspect, of the classified information the
intelligence community holds.
S. 619, if passed by the House and signed into law, would give the
American public a unique insight as to what was happening at a
biosafety level laboratory in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and early
2020. This laboratory and who was working there might be the key to
unraveling the truth.
For those concerned about declassifying COVID-19 origins information,
I can assure you that the intelligence community could release this
information while protecting their sources and methods of how it was
collected. In fact, I believe that the intelligence community could go
further than what is called for in S. 619 and release most of what it
knows about COVID origins, but this is a good start.
COVID-19 ranks as one of this century's most important events. No
community was spared, and every corner of the world felt its effects.
Everyone deserves to know what our intelligence community knows, and S.
619 is the right step in the right direction.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of S. 619, the COVID-19 Origins Act
of 2023. Along with my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner),
I plan to support this legislation, and I urge the House to pass it.
Let me stop now to compliment Chairman Turner on the efforts he has
made narrowly to bring this bill to the floor, but more generally, to
make sure that the Intelligence Committee operates in the thoughtful,
constructive, and bipartisan manner which it must operate in if we are
to protect this Nation's national security.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of more than 1.1 million
Americans, and millions more have died worldwide. The American people
want to know as much as we can determine about where this pandemic
started and critically how we can be ready for the next deadly disease,
which will come.
Determining the precise origins of a pandemic disease with high
confidence is challenging under the best of circumstances. In this
case, our already difficult task is that much harder because COVID
originated in China.
At every juncture, the PRC Government has obfuscated and obstructed
legitimate inquiries and investigations into the origins of the
disease. China's approach has been deeply irresponsible and dangerous
to global public health.
It is against that backdrop that in 2021 President Biden ordered a
90-day sprint by the intelligence community to analyze the origins of
the virus. In
[[Page H1256]]
August of 2021, the IC completed its initial work, and a few months
later, a declassified version of its findings was made public.
In short, the intelligence community agencies could not come to an
agreement on whether the virus originated from a lab accident or from
natural exposure. Some individual agencies did reach a judgment--a
narrow judgment--about which path was more likely, but they could not
do so with high confidence simply because we don't have enough reliable
information to draw those conclusions. There is a version of the IC's
classified assessment that is available to all Members through the
House Security Office.
Around 18 months after the completion of the IC assessment, not much
has changed. The intelligence community remains focused on this
question, and I hope that we will have a breakthrough that will allow
us to answer these questions once and for all, but today we are not
there yet.
I believe that the IC should make as much public as they can,
consistent with the overriding need to protect sources and methods.
Transparency is a critical element of our democracy. The factual
grounding of the IC's analysis can be an antidote to the speculation,
the rumor, and the theories that grow in the absence of good
information.
It is important to note that the bill provides the authority to make
redactions to protect sources and methods for a good reason, and
neither the chairman nor I would be supporting the bill if that were
not true. I trust the intelligence community and the administration
will lean forward in making public as much new information as possible
without endangering our ability to collect and analyze on these issues
going forward.
Now, I would mention two important things before I recognize other
speakers on my side:
First, the pandemic, which is really what is at stake here. Whether
COVID-19 originated from a lab leak or natural transmission at a wet
market, the next pandemic disease could originate from either source,
and it could come from anywhere.
In 2022, the Intelligence Committee released a declassified report
looking at how the intelligence community responded to COVID-19 and
made recommendations for how we can be better prepared for the next
pandemic disease, wherever it may come from.
Overall, the report recommended that the intelligence community
increase resources for global health security and medical intelligence,
and that it needs to move away from a culture that views health
security as a lesser priority than so-called traditional hard national
security threats; evidence the fact that it was this that killed over a
million Americans.
Furthermore, we need to promote complementary efforts between the
public health and intelligence communities. Public health professionals
and their counterparts in the IC must work hand-in-hand if we want to
maximize the odds of identifying a novel disease at the earliest
possible stage and if we want to give ourselves the best chance of
determining the novel disease's origins.
Let me turn briefly to another important thing that is really at
stake here. Madam Speaker, democracy is rooted in the idea that the
people govern, that it is their right to determine their own political
destiny. With that right comes an obligation that we don't talk about
or think about nearly enough, and that obligation is to be thoughtful,
informed critical thinkers about the issues of the day.
That is not who we are today. Today, we have elevated--because of our
political polarization, we have elevated confirmation bias to a secular
religion. Even in this conversation about the origins of the
coronavirus, what you believe is indicative of where you stand on the
political spectrum.
For reasons I don't understand, some of our colleagues and many
Americans are running around with a theory that somehow buttresses
their political legitimacy. Maybe you do that with UFOs, maybe you want
to believe that there are aliens at Roswell or whatever you want to
believe; that is pretty harmless. But when we are talking about a
pandemic or something as serious as a disease that could kill a million
Americans, that is not okay, and we have to remember our obligation to
be thoughtful critical thinkers. We cannot let our political hopes
override the obligations we have to be thinkers.
Madam Speaker, I tell my colleagues, the chairman and I have seen all
of the classified information on this, and we don't know--we don't know
the origins of the COVID pandemic. Whatever is ultimately declassified,
I would hope that my colleagues and the American people would approach
that information with the intellectual humility that we need to
approach something as serious as a pandemic and how we behave as
citizens in democracy.
We don't know.
We need to think about whether we want confirmation bias. Our
tendency to select just those facts which support our preexisting
positions interfere with our duty as critical thinkers in a democracy.
At the end of the day, the American people will get the system of
government that they deserve, and if we don't get back to being humble
about what we know to being critical thinkers, our democracy will be at
risk.
I close with a quote from a great Connecticut writer and humorist,
Mark Twain. He said: ``It ain't what you don't know that gets you into
trouble. It is what you know for sure that just ain't so.''
I am going to join my chairman in supporting this bill, and I hope it
passes in overwhelming bipartisan fashion. I hope we take that
information and use it for constructive purposes in the service of
saving lives and buttressing our democracy.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I appreciate my ranking member's very
thoughtful comments and remarks.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA of California. Madam Speaker, the issue at hand is
actually a simple one: it is whether or not to declassify data
pertaining to the investigations into the origins of COVID. This is a
simple vote. The simplicity of this vote is in stark contrast to the
magnitude of the ramifications of this declassification process.
By declassifying, we will be able to seek clarity, give transparency,
and gain security, which is what the American people deserve.
By declassifying, we have a chance to ensure that the 7 million
people who died of COVID are honored correctly. This is a chance to
hold China accountable for COVID and seek justice and a reckoning.
Perhaps most importantly, it is a chance to prevent another man-made
pandemic such as this from wreaking havoc on the planet again.
I think it is shameful that some have politicized this issue. This
isn't political at all. Declassifying this information is simply the
right thing to do.
I have personally been cleared to handle classified information since
I was 18 years old, and the point of classifying information is to
protect American lives, whether it is civilians and/or military
personnel.
Information that is classified is material that would cause damage,
serious damage or exceptionally grave damage to national security if
made publicly available.
Now, the irony of this debate, however, is that the release of this
data will actually save lives and help prevent the loss of life in the
future. It will enhance our security, not degrade it. The continued
overclassification of this data at the highest level actually poses the
greatest threat to our Nation's security.
This is an easy and simple ``yes'' vote. The implications of this
will determine whether or not we are able to prevent such another
catastrophic pandemic from paralyzing us and taking so many lives.
I encourage all Members from both sides of the aisle to vote ``yes''
and enable us to get to the bottom of this, hold China accountable, and
defend us against any future CCP threats.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Bera), a member of the Select Committee on the
Coronavirus Pandemic.
Mr. BERA. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
This should be an easy vote because this is just about science. It is
about understanding the origins of this virus
[[Page H1257]]
that created this pandemic that took at a minimum 7 million lives--
probably many more than that. It is just about science. We are not
debating the geography of where this virus originated. We know that. We
are debating how this novel virus evolved. This is a brand-new virus,
and that should go without question.
I hope this is a strong ``yes'' vote by both Democrats and
Republicans.
I think about this as a doctor and a scientist, someone who has spent
a lot of my time in Congress looking at global health security, looking
at pandemic preparedness. I am proud to serve on the select committee
that is looking at coronavirus and the impact of this pandemic. My
colleague, another physician, Dr. Wenstrup, is the chairman of that
committee, and the ranking member is Dr. Raul Ruiz.
Again, I think if we can take the politics out of this, we can
actually understand what happened over these past 3 years, the impact
it had not just on the United States but on the entire world.
We can work together as Democrats and Republicans and hopefully the
global scientific community to prevent the next pandemic. That is what
this is about.
{time} 0930
I don't know if we will ever find those origins if the Chinese
Communist Party doesn't work with us. It is in their interests as well
because they have suffered greatly. The Chinese people have suffered
greatly from this pandemic.
They ought to allow the best scientists in the world to go to ground
zero, to the hot zone, to Wuhan, and try to understand how this virus
evolved.
Maybe it was a wet market. Maybe it was a lab leak. It is important
for us to understand what it was because that then will allow us to
address and shore up the system.
If it was a lab leak, we ought to have the highest safety standards
in the world if we are doing this kind of research. We ought to look at
whether we should do gain-of-function research. That is a legitimate
question. There is scientific debate about that, et cetera, but if it
was a lab leak, we ought to understand that.
We ought to come together as a global community and make sure we have
the highest standards. If it was a wet market, if this was a naturally
occurring virus that came from an animal into a human, we ought to
understand that, as well. We ought to put in the safety and precautions
to make sure that doesn't happen in the future.
Let's take the politics out of it. Today, we have a chance as the
United States Congress to take a big vote, Democrats and Republicans,
to say: Let's try to figure out what happened.
It affected all of us, and we ought to do everything we can as the
United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, and as a global
scientific community to prevent this from happening again in our
lifetime and, hopefully, ever again.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to
vote ``yes'' on this bill. It will allow us to share information with
the public because, again, this affected all of us. I hope we have a
strong ``yes'' vote on the COVID origins bill.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Arkansas (Mr. Crawford).
Mr. CRAWFORD. Madam Speaker, this bill is the beginning of
transparency Americans deserve regarding COVID's entry into our Nation,
a virus that has killed more than a million of our loved ones here at
home and millions more across the world.
Our colleagues on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
will piece together all the facts and share them with the public,
including the role played by elements of our government and the media
to try to discredit those who told the truth about COVID.
This bill is focused on safe disclosure of what our intelligence
agencies have learned about the central role foreign actors had in the
creation and spread of this deadly virus.
It is important that Americans and others across the globe learn
about the Chinese Communist Party's coverup of COVID's origins at its
Wuhan research facility, as well as the World Health Organization's
subsequent role in suppressing this truth.
Until China and others who echo China's false narrative face
accountability and consequences for that, we are just inviting the next
coverup.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Mississippi (Mr. Kelly).
Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to encourage
Members to support passage of S. 619, a bill that requires the Director
of National Intelligence to declassify information related to the
origin of COVID-19.
The need for transparency regarding the origin of this pandemic
cannot be overstated, especially as the world continues to grapple with
its effects.
I thank Chairman Turner for his leadership on this issue, and I thank
the Senate Intelligence Committee for their diligent work.
As you all know, the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's chaotic
response have had a devastating impact on our Nation and the world. It
has caused loss of life, disrupted our economy, and fundamentally
changed our way of life.
We owe it to the American people to inform them where this virus
originated and how. Republican Members charged with oversight have
always been champions of transparency and accountability. By supporting
this bill, we are showing the American people that we take this
responsibility seriously. Republicans are keeping their promise to do
everything within our power to get the truth and hold those responsible
accountable.
To date, the source of the virus remains unclear, and there are
strong indications that it may have originated from a laboratory in
Wuhan, China.
The American people deserve answers. They deserve to know the truth
about the origin of this pandemic. Without transparency, the public
will turn to malign actors for information, further undermining our
citizens' trust in the government and its intelligence agencies.
As we know, trust is a vital component of any successful democracy.
When citizens do not trust their government, it destabilizes society
and strains the fabric that binds our communities together.
The intelligence community has a responsibility to provide the
American people with accurate information that can help them make
informed decisions. By declassifying the information on COVID-19, the
DNI can help restore the public's trust in our intelligence community.
Madam Speaker, I urge support for passage of S. 619. It is our duty
to the American people to do everything within our power to get to the
truth, and this bill is an important step in that direction.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Austin Scott).
Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Madam Speaker, like millions of people
around the world, in 2020, I tested positive for COVID. I was
fortunate. After several days in the hospital and 14 days on oxygen, I
was able to recover. Many were not.
Americans and the rest of the world deserve to know exactly where
this virus started and any details surrounding the origins of the virus
that launched the globe into chaos.
If the CCP was not fully transparent during these times, people need
to know that, as well. How long did they cover it up? How long did they
know that this virus had been unleashed?
If we are going to defeat the Communist Chinese Party, our government
has to be transparent about how malicious they have become. The U.S.
and other freedom-loving Nations are going to have to join together to
make sure that we expose their intent to the world.
I believe that we all have the right to know about the origins of
COVID-19, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution to
require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify any of the
information that we have on the origins of COVID and the CCP.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Utah (Mr. Stewart).
[[Page H1258]]
Mr. STEWART. Madam Speaker, again, I thank the chairman and the
minority leader for their support on this.
In April 2020, just months into the pandemic, we had a briefing from
various agencies to the Intel Committee about the origins of the
pandemic. At that point, one of the agencies said to us that they knew
this did not come from the Wuhan lab, and many of us were angry at
that.
We said to them, how could you possibly know that? The truth is, they
didn't know that. The American people deserve to know the truth.
Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci has consistently said
anyone who would even propose this idea that it came from the lab or
some other source that was manufactured in China was nothing but a
conspiracy theorist. He belittled anyone who suggested that. They tried
to silence anyone who suggested that. He advocated among his fellow
scientists to do the same thing.
Again, the American people deserve to know the truth, and I would
defy anyone to give me any possible explanation why they would oppose
this bill.
This isn't like the movies--``You can't handle the truth.'' The
American people, of course, can handle the truth. They deserve to know
the truth.
This final thought: Even now, the NIH is still listing the Wuhan
Institute of Virology for eligibility to receive our Federal tax
dollars.
That makes no sense at all. It is absolute nonsense. We can't do that
until, once again, we know the truth.
Madam Speaker, I encourage support for this bill.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, the issue of the origins of COVID are so
important that our Speaker has appointed a select subcommittee on the
origins of COVID. Our next speaker, Dr. Wenstrup, is the chair of that
subcommittee.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Wenstrup).
Mr. WENSTRUP. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of S. 619, the COVID-
19 Origin Act of 2023. The American people deserve answers on the
origins of the COVID-19 virus, a novel coronavirus that sparked a
pandemic and has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide to date.
The impact of the pandemic on the American people has been
catastrophic. We lost loved ones. Everyone has been touched.
Our physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers were strained beyond
capacity. We had to contend with lockdowns and school closures
resulting in learning loss, as well as shutdowns and job loss, and
depression and suicide that spiked after these measures.
Many Americans still suffer physically, mentally, and economically
from the impact of the virus and the measures taken during the
pandemic.
This bill will provide some sunlight for the American people,
scientists, and physicians. I am honored to be one of seven physicians
on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, as Dr. Bera
referenced earlier.
In order for us to be able to predict, prepare, protect, and prevent
against a future pandemic, we need to know how and where this pandemic
began.
There are sound reasons to conclude that this particular virus may
have resulted from a lab leak in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In the fall of 2019, well before Americans were aware of a problem in
Wuhan, four unusual things happened at the Wuhan lab. Multiple
researchers became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms, according to a
State Department fact sheet. The Wuhan institute deleted the sequences
of viruses that they had in their library. They changed control of the
lab from civilian to military--highly unusual--and had a contractor
redo the ventilation system in the laboratory. Furthermore, we know the
Wuhan Institute of Virology was conducting gain-of-function research on
novel bat coronaviruses by creating chimeric viruses, combining two
viruses together to test infectivity, and infecting mice with these
viruses for study.
The Wuhan lab applied to receive U.S. grant funding in order to
insert what is called the furin cleavage site into novel coronaviruses,
the same unique genetic aspect of COVID-19 that made it more infectious
to humans.
Last Congress, I was honored to lead the House Intelligence Committee
Republicans in producing our second interim report on the origins of
the COVID-19 pandemic. This Congress, I am fortunate to continue this
work as the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus
Pandemic, where we will work on a bipartisan basis to follow the facts,
conduct a fair investigation, and seek to deliver the truth to the
American people.
This bill we are voting on today to declassify information on the
origins of the COVID-19 virus will provide much-needed transparency for
Americans who have lost so much in this tragedy, but it is only a
start.
I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on both sides
of the aisle in this endeavor.
Madam Speaker, I urge support of this legislation.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Murphy).
Mr. MURPHY. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 619, a bill
to require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to
declassify all information related to potential leaks between the Wuhan
Institute of Virology and the origins of COVID-19.
We had red flags about COVID's origins from day one. If it looks like
a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a
duck. Folks, this screams like a duck.
In January 2020, Dr. Fauci received emails that promulgated that
COVID-19 looked engineered and not from the wild. Yet, 3 weeks later,
to save his own skin, he commissioned a scientific paper that
``debunked'' the lab theory. He was academically and intellectually
dishonest. Why? He did not want the American people to know the truth.
The truth is that Dr. Fauci and his institution funneled hundreds of
thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to promote dangerous gain-of-
function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology without proper
guardrails.
That is the key. The Wuhan lab was no more set up to deal with this
deadly virus than my mother's kitchen.
We had people--thousands, millions of people--lose their lives, their
livelihoods, and their loved ones.
If this contagion leaked from the lab, if that is the case, the world
deserves to know. It is time to call out the duck in the room. Release
the intelligence that we need to find out the truth.
We have been lied to by China. We have even been lied to by our own
government leaders. We need the truth. We ask our colleagues to please
pass this bill.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, we were doing pretty well there, but behind the
discussion of ducks were some pretty aggressive accusations of lying of
American Government officials, dishonesty, attributions of motives,
which is really what I am and I think what we are all trying to avoid
here.
{time} 0945
I will say it again. As profoundly frustrating as it is, we just
don't know. We are entitled to have theories. We are citizens, after
all. We shouldn't be so certain in those theories that we are willing
to impugn the character and motives of other Americans, especially if
those Americans are in positions of responsibility that need to be
trusted in the next pandemic. So I will leave that there.
I do want to characterize and substantiate my rather frustrating
observation that we just don't know--with what the intelligence
community believes is the latest assessment on the origins--again, I
understand this is frustrating, but facts are important.
Here it is, and this is a publicly available document: Four
intelligence community elements and the National Intelligence Council
assess, with low confidence, that the virus was likely caused by
natural exposure to animals infected with it.
One IC element assesses, with moderate confidence, that the first
human infection most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated
incident.
Then analysts at three IC elements remain unable to coalesce around
either explanation.
[[Page H1259]]
That is a profoundly frustrating picture of organizations whose
aggregate budget is tens of billions of dollars, who draw on all kinds
of expertise, and yes, who are fallible, like any human institutions
are. That is where they are and, sadly, that aggregates to, we just
don't know.
We are entitled to speculate. We are entitled to have theories. I
would just urge caution about impugning people's motives, impugning
their character based on those theories which are necessarily rooted in
uncertainty.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. McCormick).
Mr. McCORMICK. Madam Speaker, it is about time. It is good to see a
bill actually shed some light on a disease process if we want to expose
something, if we want to bring the truth. This should have been done a
long time ago.
When we first started seeing this disease in the emergency
department, I was there on the front lines seeing people with fevers
for no reason, testing negative for flu, testing negative for strep,
pneumonia, and urinary tract infections. We couldn't figure out why
they were sick. We were sending them home, not really understanding
what was wrong with them.
Then we had a hard time trying to figure out how to treat them. We
went through a novel disease process, just like they did back in 1918
when we had the original flu pandemic where 26 million people died in
about a year.
It should never come to a point where we become politically
motivated. More to the point of why we have become so critical of
people who should be trusted is when they have bias built into their
argument to begin with, and that is what we are here to expose.
When we have transparency, when we have declassified information so
we can actually make a good judgment based on public opinion when it is
exposed to the truth, I think it will expose that people were
politically motivated; that they are embarrassed by their choices, and
that they made choices to politicize this, rather than get to the
bottom of this.
We cannot stop a disease by misunderstanding where it came from. We
cannot have an honest discussion and heal our Nation until we have
accountability.
I think where the mistrust comes from is the fact that it was
politicized to begin with. So I think it is fair criticism when you
have emails that expose the fact that they were trying to spin it a
certain way, rather than having an honest, scientific discussion. That
is fair criticism, and people should be held accountable if we are
going to get to the bottom of this.
As an ER doctor who served during the entire pandemic, since before I
even knew what it was, watching people die in front of me, learning
lessons--and those are honest lessons, where doctors made decisions and
in good faith made mistakes, but it was in good faith--and we want to
expose people who made decisions out of bad faith.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Pfluger).
Mr. PFLUGER. Madam Speaker, for nearly 3 years now, the truth about
COVID-19 and its origins have been hidden from the American people. We
are at a real crossroads here. There should not be a single partisan
fight over this issue.
We are talking about the lives of so many people, not only in our
country, but also throughout the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, Big Government bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci abused
their positions of power to disguise and distort the facts and to
further a tyrannical approach to our country.
Anyone who dared ask the question about the origins of COVID, or
chose to make an independent healthcare decision for their own family,
were silenced, censored, and ostracized as conspiracy theorists.
Lo and behold, we stand here today with so many of these truths that
were previously called conspiracy theories turning out to be true; the
most glaring example being that Fauci knew as early as March of 2020
that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.
He spent the next 3 years dodging, misleading, mischaracterizing the
possibility, and even using American taxpayer dollars to pay for
studies to discredit that very thing.
This is not just unfortunate, this is truly astonishing. We wonder
why the American people have a lack of trust in our government; it is
because of these kinds of things.
My constituents deserve to know the truth. Everyone that is here,
their constituents deserve to know the truth.
Republicans delivered a Commitment to America that we would deliver
accountability; that we would have a government that is accountable,
and it starts with things like this.
We shouldn't fear government institutions. We should not fear the
decisions that are made. But when you hide things, you mischaracterize
things, and you mislead the public, we do.
That is part of our Commitment to America, to uncover these things
and make accountable and transparent; to put things on the table and
let people know the facts. That accountability is going to have to be
for the lives that were lost, the livelihoods that were destroyed, and
the years together that families were robbed of.
Pass this bill. Declassify this information, and let's get the truth.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I have no more speakers. I am prepared to
close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I will reiterate my support for this bill and my gratitude to the
chairman and the Republican majority for moving it quickly.
This bill, fundamentally, is about something we haven't talked a lot
about today, which is transparency. Transparency is a cornerstone of
our democracy because without transparency, the American people can't
make the decisions that they need to make responsibly as citizens of a
democracy.
I am sorry that today we heard a little bit of accusations that the
truth was hidden from the American people; that taxpayer funds were
misused; that Dr. Fauci had a motive to cover himself; that there was
government censorship. There is not one iota of evidence for any of
that.
When we say those things without evidence, what we do is we reduce
the American people's faith in their government and, eventually, when
their faith in their government is reduced to nothing, we lose our
democracy, or we see people breaking windows downstairs to get into the
government's Chambers because it has been so discredited.
But I am going to set that aside right now because this is an
important, bipartisan effort to bring transparency around something
that is going to be pretty frustrating for the American people because
no matter what is declassified, it won't be dispositive about the
origins of the coronavirus.
This is a really important first step. I hope it will clear up some
of the speculation, some of the rumors that are out there; and it is
emblematic of something that the chairman and I care a lot about, which
is, that unless there is a really good reason to keep something
classified, the American people are responsible enough to have that
information.
I thank again Chairman Turner for his work on this issue, for his
commitment to bipartisanship.
Madam Speaker, I urge support from the whole House for S. 619, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to begin by thanking my ranking member. This bill comes to the
House floor from the Senate with bipartisan support in the House, and
it does so as a result of the leadership of the Ranking Member, Jim
Himes. I appreciate his commitment to both the declassifying of
information and to the importance of this information concerning COVID-
19, and for the fact that we are working in a bipartisan manner to do
so.
This will be a very strong statement from this House today that we
want to know the origins of COVID-19. The American public deserves to
know the
[[Page H1260]]
answers, and that we are moving to declassify the information that we
have available.
Madam Speaker, I ask for support of S. 619, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 199, the previous question is ordered on
the bill.
The question is on the third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be read a third time, and was read the third
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. TURNER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 419,
nays 0, not voting 16, as follows:
[Roll No. 143]
YEAS--419
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Alford
Allen
Allred
Amodei
Armstrong
Arrington
Auchincloss
Babin
Bacon
Baird
Balderson
Balint
Banks
Barr
Barragan
Bean (FL)
Beatty
Bentz
Bera
Bergman
Bice
Biggs
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NC)
Blumenauer
Blunt Rochester
Boebert
Bonamici
Bost
Bowman
Boyle (PA)
Brecheen
Brown
Brownley
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Budzinski
Burchett
Burgess
Burlison
Bush
Calvert
Cammack
Caraveo
Carbajal
Cardenas
Carey
Carl
Carson
Carter (GA)
Carter (LA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Casar
Case
Casten
Castor (FL)
Chavez-DeRemer
Cherfilus-McCormick
Chu
Cicilline
Ciscomani
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Cline
Cloud
Clyburn
Clyde
Cohen
Cole
Collins
Comer
Connolly
Correa
Costa
Courtney
Craig
Crane
Crawford
Crenshaw
Crockett
Crow
Cuellar
Curtis
D'Esposito
Davids (KS)
Davidson
Davis (IL)
Davis (NC)
De La Cruz
Dean (PA)
DeGette
DeLauro
DelBene
Deluzio
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Doggett
Donalds
Duarte
Duncan
Dunn (FL)
Ellzey
Emmer
Escobar
Eshoo
Espaillat
Estes
Evans
Ezell
Fallon
Feenstra
Ferguson
Finstad
Fischbach
Fitzgerald
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fletcher
Flood
Foster
Foushee
Foxx
Frankel, Lois
Franklin, C. Scott
Frost
Fry
Fulcher
Gaetz
Gallagher
Garamendi
Garbarino
Garcia (IL)
Garcia (TX)
Garcia, Mike
Garcia, Robert
Gimenez
Golden (ME)
Goldman (NY)
Gomez
Gonzales, Tony
Gonzalez, Vicente
Good (VA)
Gooden (TX)
Gosar
Gottheimer
Granger
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Green (TN)
Green, Al (TX)
Greene (GA)
Griffith
Grijalva
Grothman
Guest
Guthrie
Hageman
Harder (CA)
Harris
Harshbarger
Hayes
Hern
Higgins (LA)
Higgins (NY)
Hill
Himes
Hinson
Horsford
Houchin
Houlahan
Hoyer
Hoyle (OR)
Hudson
Huffman
Huizenga
Hunt
Issa
Ivey
Jackson (IL)
Jackson (NC)
Jackson (TX)
Jackson Lee
Jacobs
James
Jayapal
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson (SD)
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Joyce (PA)
Kamlager-Dove
Kaptur
Kean (NJ)
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Khanna
Kiggans (VA)
Kildee
Kiley
Kilmer
Kim (CA)
Kim (NJ)
Krishnamoorthi
Kuster
Kustoff
LaHood
LaLota
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Landsman
Langworthy
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
LaTurner
Lawler
Lee (CA)
Lee (FL)
Lee (NV)
Lee (PA)
Lesko
Letlow
Levin
Lofgren
Loudermilk
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Luna
Luttrell
Lynch
Mace
Magaziner
Malliotakis
Mann
Manning
Massie
Mast
Matsui
McBath
McCarthy
McCaul
McClain
McClellan
McClintock
McCollum
McCormick
McGarvey
McGovern
Meeks
Menendez
Meuser
Mfume
Miller (IL)
Miller (OH)
Miller (WV)
Mills
Molinaro
Moolenaar
Mooney
Moore (AL)
Moore (UT)
Moore (WI)
Moran
Morelle
Moskowitz
Moulton
Mrvan
Mullin
Murphy
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neguse
Nehls
Newhouse
Nickel
Norcross
Norman
Nunn (IA)
Obernolte
Ocasio-Cortez
Ogles
Omar
Owens
Pallone
Palmer
Panetta
Pappas
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Peltola
Pence
Perez
Perry
Peters
Pettersen
Pfluger
Pingree
Pocan
Porter
Posey
Pressley
Quigley
Ramirez
Raskin
Reschenthaler
Rodgers (WA)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rose
Rosendale
Ross
Rouzer
Roy
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rutherford
Ryan
Salazar
Salinas
Sanchez
Santos
Sarbanes
Scalise
Scanlon
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Scholten
Schweikert
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Self
Sessions
Sewell
Sherman
Sherrill
Simpson
Slotkin
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Smucker
Sorensen
Soto
Spanberger
Stansbury
Stanton
Stauber
Steel
Stefanik
Steil
Stevens
Stewart
Strickland
Strong
Swalwell
Sykes
Takano
Tenney
Thanedar
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Tiffany
Titus
Tlaib
Tokuda
Tonko
Torres (CA)
Torres (NY)
Trahan
Trone
Turner
Underwood
Valadao
Van Duyne
Van Orden
Vargas
Vasquez
Veasey
Velazquez
Wagner
Walberg
Waltz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Wexton
Wild
Williams (GA)
Williams (NY)
Williams (TX)
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Yakym
Zinke
NOT VOTING--16
Beyer
Castro (TX)
Cleaver
Edwards
Gallego
Leger Fernandez
Lieu
McHenry
Meng
Miller-Meeks
Phillips
Schrier
Spartz
Steube
Timmons
Van Drew
{time} 1025
Messrs. McCARTHY, TAKANO, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, and Mrs. TORRES of
California changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mr. EDWARDS. Madam Speaker, due to a district emergency, I was
unavoidably detained from voting today. Had I been present, I would
have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 143.
Mr. McHENRY. Madam Speaker, due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict,
I was unable to vote on the passage of S. 619. Had I been present, I
would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 143.
Ms. SCHRIER. Madam Speaker, due to illness, I was unable to be
present today. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on
rollcall No. 143.
Mr. TIMMONS. Madam Speaker, I was in my congressional district today
during votes. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on
rollcall No. 143.
____________________