The House voted unanimously Friday to pass a bill requiring Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify existing intelligence on Covid’s origins, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk.
The bill, which was previously approved by the Senate, passed the House 419-0 and would require that Haines declassify any intelligence related to links between the pandemic and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the bat coronavirus research lab that was operating under unsafe conditions in the very city where the first cases of Covid emerged.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), hailed the vote as a step towards greater transparency.
“Now the American people will be able to see what their government knows about COVID origins – and those who lied about it can be held accountable,” Hawley wrote on Twitter.
The White House has not yet indicated whether Biden will sign the legislation.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent a three-page letter to Hawley’s office on Wednesday, blasting the senator for “undermining international solidarity” through his legislative effort.
The statement, obtained by Fox News, went on to “express our grave concern” regarding the bill, “which falsely claimed that the Covid-19 coronavirus originated from Wuhan Institute of Virology, accuses China of blocking international investigations, refusing to share information and lacking transparency.”
However, the CCP condemnation of Hawley reinforced the Missouri senator’s conviction that he was on to something.
“When China is this upset about a proposal you know you’re on the right track,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “The American people deserve to know the truth about the origins of COVID and China must be held accountable.”
In late February, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that the coronavirus pandemic was most likely the result of a virology laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. The announcement came on the heels of the FBI endorsing the lab-leak theory.
“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” agency director Christopher Wray told Fox News in an interview. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”
On Friday afternoon, Hawley echoed the importance of the Covid-19 Origin Act in a public letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Dear President Xi,” Hawley wrote. “Time is up. Come clean about your role in spreading COVID to the word.”