COVID–19 Origin Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1348 To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID–19, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 22, 2021 Mr. HAWLEY (for himself and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Select Committee on Intelligence A BILL To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID–19, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Origin Act 4 of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress makes the following findings: 7 (1) The Department of State released a fact 8 sheet on January 15, 2021, about the Wuhan Insti- 9 tute of Virology (WIV) which stated the following: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 May 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1348.IS S1348 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1348 IS (A) ‘‘The U.S. government has reason to 1 believe that several researchers inside the WIV 2 became sick in autumn 2019, before the first 3 identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms 4 consistent with both COVID–19 and common 5 seasonal illnesses.’’. 6 (B) ‘‘WIV researchers conducted experi- 7 ments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus 8 identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its 9 closest sample to SARS-CoV-2.’’. 10 (C) ‘‘Despite the WIV presenting itself as 11 a civilian institution, the United States has de- 12 termined that the WIV has collaborated on pub- 13 lications and secret projects with China’s mili- 14 tary.’’. 15 (2) Former Director of the Centers for Disease 16 Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, stated in 17 March 2021 that, ‘‘the most likely etiology of this 18 pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory’’ and 19 noted that, ‘‘[i]t is not unusual for respiratory 20 pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory 21 to infect the laboratory worker.’’. 22 (3) Director-General of the World Health Orga- 23 nization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowl- 24 edged in March 2021 that the Coronavirus Disease 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 May 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1348.IS S1348 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1348 IS 2019 (COVID–19) may have originated in a labora- 1 tory and said this hypothesis ‘‘requires further inves- 2 tigation, potentially with additional missions involv- 3 ing specialist experts.’’. 4 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 (1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Dis- 7 ease 2019 (COVID–19) is critical for preventing a 8 similar pandemic from occurring in the future; 9 (2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 10 pandemic may have originated at the Wuhan Insti- 11 tute of Virology; and 12 (3) the Director of National Intelligence should 13 declassify and make available to the public as much 14 information as possible about the origin of COVID– 15 19 so the United States and like-minded countries 16 can— 17 (A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as ex- 18 peditiously as possible, and 19 (B) use that information to take all appro- 20 priate measures to prevent a similar pandemic 21 from occurring again. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 May 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1348.IS S1348 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1348 IS SEC. 4. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO 1 THE ORIGIN OF COVID–19. 2 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact- 3 ment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence 4 shall— 5 (1) declassify any and all information relating 6 to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Vi- 7 rology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 8 2019 (COVID–19), including— 9 (A) activities performed by the Wuhan In- 10 stitute of Virology with or on behalf of the Peo- 11 ple’s Liberation Army; 12 (B) coronavirus research or other related 13 activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of 14 Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19; 15 and 16 (C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of 17 Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019, including 18 for any such researcher— 19 (i) the researcher’s name; 20 (ii) the researcher’s symptoms; 21 (iii) the date of the onset of the re- 22 searcher’s symptoms; 23 (iv) the researcher’s role at the 24 Wuhan Institute of Virology; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 May 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1348.IS S1348 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1348 IS (v) whether the researcher was in- 1 volved with or exposed to coronavirus re- 2 search at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 3 (vi) whether the researcher visited a 4 hospital while they were ill; and 5 (vii) a description of any other actions 6 taken by the researcher that may suggest 7 they were experiencing a serious illness at 8 the time; and 9 (2) submit to Congress an unclassified report 10 that contains— 11 (A) all of the information described under 12 paragraph (1); and 13 (B) only such redactions as the Director 14 determines necessary to protect sources and 15 methods without altering or obscuring in any 16 way the information described under paragraph 17 (1). 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 May 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1348.IS S1348 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS