COVID–19 Origin Act of 2021

117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1867 AN ACT 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 2 † S 1867 ES SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Origin Act 2 of 2021’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress makes the following findings: 5 (1) The Department of State released a fact 6 sheet on January 15, 2021, about the Wuhan Insti- 7 tute of Virology (WIV) which stated the following: 8 (A) ‘‘The U.S. government has reason to 9 believe that several researchers inside the WIV 10 became sick in autumn 2019, before the first 11 identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms 12 consistent with both COVID–19 and common 13 seasonal illnesses.’’. 14 (B) ‘‘WIV researchers conducted experi- 15 ments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus 16 identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its 17 closest sample to SARS–CoV–2.’’. 18 (C) ‘‘Despite the WIV presenting itself as 19 a civilian institution, the United States has de- 20 termined that the WIV has collaborated on pub- 21 lications and secret projects with China’s mili- 22 tary.’’. 23 (2) Former Director of the Centers for Disease 24 Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, stated in 25 March 2021 that, ‘‘the most likely etiology of this 26 3 † S 1867 ES pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory’’ and 1 noted that, ‘‘[i]t is not unusual for respiratory 2 pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory 3 to infect the laboratory worker.’’. 4 (3) Director-General of the World Health Orga- 5 nization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowl- 6 edged in March 2021 that the Coronavirus Disease 7 2019 (COVID–19) may have originated in a labora- 8 tory and said this hypothesis ‘‘requires further inves- 9 tigation, potentially with additional missions involv- 10 ing specialist experts.’’. 11 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 12 It is the sense of Congress that— 13 (1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Dis- 14 ease 2019 (COVID–19) is critical for preventing a 15 similar pandemic from occurring in the future; 16 (2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 17 pandemic may have originated at the Wuhan Insti- 18 tute of Virology; and 19 (3) the Director of National Intelligence should 20 declassify and make available to the public as much 21 information as possible about the origin of COVID– 22 19 so the United States and like-minded countries 23 can— 24 4 † S 1867 ES (A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as ex- 1 peditiously as possible, and 2 (B) use that information to take all appro- 3 priate measures to prevent a similar pandemic 4 from occurring again. 5 SEC. 4. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO 6 THE ORIGIN OF COVID–19. 7 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact- 8 ment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence 9 shall— 10 (1) declassify any and all information relating 11 to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Vi- 12 rology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 13 2019 (COVID–19), including— 14 (A) activities performed by the Wuhan In- 15 stitute of Virology with or on behalf of the Peo- 16 ple’s Liberation Army; 17 (B) coronavirus research or other related 18 activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of 19 Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19; 20 and 21 (C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of 22 Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019, including 23 for any such researcher— 24 (i) the researcher’s name; 25 5 † S 1867 ES (ii) the researcher’s symptoms; 1 (iii) the date of the onset of the re- 2 searcher’s symptoms; 3 (iv) the researcher’s role at the 4 Wuhan Institute of Virology; 5 (v) whether the researcher was in- 6 volved with or exposed to coronavirus re- 7 search at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 8 (vi) whether the researcher visited a 9 hospital while they were ill; and 10 (vii) a description of any other actions 11 taken by the researcher that may suggest 12 they were experiencing a serious illness at 13 the time; and 14 (2) submit to Congress an unclassified report 15 that contains— 16 (A) all of the information described under 17 paragraph (1); and 18 6 † S 1867 ES (B) only such redactions as the Director 1 determines necessary to protect sources and 2 methods. 3 Passed the Senate May 26, 2021. Attest: Secretary. 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1867 AN ACT To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID–19, and for other purposes.