UPDATE (7/29/21): This legislation has been passed by the House of Representatives and now awaits action by the Senate.
Original post
In May, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that permanently defunds the Wuhan animal lab. Now, their counterparts in the House of Representatives are taking action.
Following over a year of advocacy by WCW, the bipartisan House Appropriations Committee just voted to prohibit National Institutes of Health funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the agency’s 2022 funding bill. The amendment was led by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and garnered bipartisan support.
I secured provisions into a committee-approved spending plan that will keep U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to the Wuhan lab & investigate why – at the direction of a Chinese researcher – critical COVID gene sequences were deleted from the National Institutes of Health.
— Jaime Herrera Beutler (@HerreraBeutler) July 15, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated millions of lives, impacted our economy, and changed life as we know it. While we have much to learn about the origins of this pandemic, one thing is certain-not a cent of American tax dollars should go towards the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
— Judge Carter (@JudgeCarter) July 23, 2021
Taxpayer funds from the NIH, the State Department and the Pentagon supported WIV’s dangerous coronavirus experiments on animals that experts–and a growing majority of taxpayers–believe caused the pandemic.
House Committee Votes To Defund Wuhan Lab, Gain-Of-Function Research In Adversarial Countries https://t.co/prN22yauFE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 17, 2021
But with yesterday’s vote, Congress has now taken action to prevent funding for the Wuhan animal lab from all of these agencies. In addition to the NIH defund, the Democrat-led House funding panel recently voted to cut off DOD and State Department funding for WIV.
U.S. taxpayer dollars should never fund gain-of-function research in adversarial nations. My amendments make that simple, commonsense statement a reality.
Read my full statement below ⬇️https://t.co/Bf4mWJKkYI
— Rep. Chris Stewart (@RepChrisStewart) July 16, 2021
The NIH’s 2022 funding bill also prohibits taxpayer funding for gain-of-function experiments in adversarial nations, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Prompted by a recent WCW exposé, the legislation also requests information on oversight of NIH-funded animal labs in foreign countries.
House panel votes to cut funding to Chinese researchers in wake of COVID pandemic – https://t.co/1u1uIf4kqM – @washtimes
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 17, 2021
The bill now goes to the full House of Representatives for a vote, then to the Senate, then to the President for his signature! We are working our tails off to make sure it becomes law, and will keep you posted.