Green Bay Reporter

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), called on the Biden administration to jumpstart investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the involvement of the CCP. 

Gallagher, in a news release issued June 12, highlighted the need for the Biden administration to declassify relevant documents related to the pandemic.

“This report confirms that the CCP was conducting dangerous coronavirus research at ill-equipped labs in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and took dramatic steps to hide their work from the rest of the world,” Gallagher said in a statement. “It also highlights the lengths at which the party has gone to prevent transparency and cover-up what happened in Wuhan in the fall of 2019.”

Gallagher, who earlier this year reintroduced the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, initially proposed two years ago, noted the United States should take advantage of any opportunity to probe the pandemic’s source. 

“The Biden administration should stop dragging its feet and immediately declassify all the relevant intelligence surrounding COVID-19, as they are legally required to do by June 18,” Gallagher said in the news release. “The clock is ticking.” 

His move to reintroduce the bill came on the heels of a classified intelligence report from the Department of Energy, which alleged the pandemic started from a lab leak, and the bill received unanimous Senate approval March 1.

“In March of 2020, COVID shut down the world and upended our lives," Gallagher said. "But almost three years later, we still don’t understand how this virus began thanks to the CCP’s work to prevent any meaningful investigation into the origins of this virus.”

Gallagher said the public deserves to know the truth and Americans should wait until China offers access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to get to the bottom of the issue. 

“The administration has had it within its authority to declassify all the relevant intelligence surrounding COVID, but they have repeatedly refused to take this easy but important step,” Gallagher said, adding it was not acceptable. He added that he was pleased to see Congress acting – in overwhelming bipartisan fashion – to get the administration to declassify the intelligence surrounding COVID.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which issued a statement highlighting its concerns about the lab leak and the Chinese government’s cover-up. The statement focuses on the need to hold Chinese leadership accountable for its moves, including hiding information and preventing doctors from talking and spreading false stories. 

“This is a cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party, which has now led to one of the worst pandemics we’ve ever seen," McCaul said, according to the House Foreign Affairs news release. "The World Health Organization did not protect the world from this pandemic, and I consider them to be co-conspirators with the Chinese Communist Party.”