COVID–19 Origin Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3191 To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID–19, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 13, 2021 Mr. GALLAGHER (for himself, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, Mr. STEWART, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota, Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina, Mr. BABIN, Mr. PERRY, Mr. WEBSTER of Florida, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. CAWTHORN, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. HICE of Geor- gia, Mr. RICE of South Carolina, and Mr. GREEN of Tennessee) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speak- er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju- risdiction of the committee concerned 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Jun 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3191.IH H3191 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3191 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress makes the following findings: 2 (1) The Department of State released a fact 3 sheet on January 15, 2021, about the Wuhan Insti- 4 tute of Virology (WIV) which stated the following: 5 (A) ‘‘The U.S. government has reason to 6 believe that several researchers inside the WIV 7 became sick in autumn 2019, before the first 8 identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms 9 consistent with both COVID–19 and common 10 seasonal illnesses.’’. 11 (B) ‘‘WIV researchers conducted experi- 12 ments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus 13 identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its 14 closest sample to SARS-CoV-2.’’. 15 (C) ‘‘Despite the WIV presenting itself as 16 a civilian institution, the United States has de- 17 termined that the WIV has collaborated on pub- 18 lications and secret projects with China’s mili- 19 tary.’’. 20 (2) Former Director of the Centers for Disease 21 Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, stated in 22 March 2021 that, ‘‘the most likely etiology of this 23 pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory’’ and 24 noted that, ‘‘[i]t is not unusual for respiratory 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Jun 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3191.IH H3191 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3191 IH pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory 1 to infect the laboratory worker.’’. 2 (3) Director-General of the World Health Orga- 3 nization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowl- 4 edged in March 2021 that the Coronavirus Disease 5 2019 (COVID–19) may have originated in a labora- 6 tory and said this hypothesis ‘‘requires further inves- 7 tigation, potentially with additional missions involv- 8 ing specialist experts.’’. 9 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 10 It is the sense of Congress that— 11 (1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Dis- 12 ease 2019 (COVID–19) is critical for preventing a 13 similar pandemic from occurring in the future; 14 (2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 15 pandemic may have originated at the Wuhan Insti- 16 tute of Virology; and 17 (3) the Director of National Intelligence should 18 declassify and make available to the public as much 19 information as possible about the origin of COVID– 20 19 so the United States and like-minded countries 21 can— 22 (A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as ex- 23 peditiously as possible, and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Jun 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3191.IH H3191 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3191 IH (B) use that information to take all appro- 1 priate measures to prevent a similar pandemic 2 from occurring again. 3 SEC. 4. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO 4 THE ORIGIN OF COVID–19. 5 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact- 6 ment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence 7 shall— 8 (1) declassify any and all information relating 9 to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Vi- 10 rology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 11 2019 (COVID–19), including— 12 (A) activities performed by the Wuhan In- 13 stitute of Virology with or on behalf of the Peo- 14 ple’s Liberation Army; 15 (B) coronavirus research or other related 16 activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of 17 Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19; 18 and 19 (C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of 20 Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019, including 21 for any such researcher— 22 (i) the researcher’s name; 23 (ii) the researcher’s symptoms; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Jun 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3191.IH H3191 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3191 IH (iii) the date of the onset of the re- 1 searcher’s symptoms; 2 (iv) the researcher’s role at the 3 Wuhan Institute of Virology; 4 (v) whether the researcher was in- 5 volved with or exposed to coronavirus re- 6 search at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 7 (vi) whether the researcher visited a 8 hospital while they were ill; and 9 (vii) a description of any other actions 10 taken by the researcher that may suggest 11 they were experiencing a serious illness at 12 the time; and 13 (2) submit to Congress an unclassified report 14 that contains— 15 (A) all of the information described under 16 paragraph (1); and 17 (B) only such redactions as the Director 18 determines necessary to protect sources and 19 methods without altering or obscuring in any 20 way the information described under paragraph 21 (1). 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:28 Jun 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3191.IH H3191 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS