Nearly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, we are still requesting transparency about the origins of the virus that killed millions of people, shuttered small businesses across Central Washington, restricted travel, and fundamentally disrupted our lives. Now, after years of attempts to dismiss mounting evidence that the COVID-19 virus originated from a lab leak, the latest reports from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have concluded the COVID-19 virus likely originated as a lab leak in Wuhan, China. As I’ve been saying for the last two years: the American people deserve to know how this devastating pandemic began so we can hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable and take steps to ensure a catastrophe like that never happens again.
When I talk to people in Central Washington, many are disappointed that we have yet to discover the truth about the origins of the pandemic that upended their lives. Those who questioned the origins of the COVID-19 virus were too often silenced or sidelined. If you considered the possibility that the virus came from a lab, you were named a conspiracy theorist. The truth is, when a virus impacts the very fabric of our society and has the capacity to tear the global economy apart, it should be acceptable—or even encouraged—to ask questions. Yet when it came to the origins of COVID-19, we were told to be quiet. Now, the cloak of silence is being lifted, and that means we may finally get the answers we deserve.
This week, the House will be voting on the COVID-19 Origin Act, which requires the Biden Administration to declassify all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of COVID-19. This legislation is crucial in getting answers for the American people who had their lives turned upside down for far too long.
It’s even more crucial we hold the CCP accountable for their lack of cooperation with the world about what really happened at the lab in Wuhan, especially since the CCP is even now attempting to hide the truth about the Wuhan lab. Elon Must posted on Twitter the assessment from the Department of Energy, CCP-run media warned him he was risking his relationship with China. Let me be clear: we cannot allow the CCP to continue to threaten or silence our business leaders when they are simply sharing facts. As a member of the House Select Committee on the CCP, I am committed to holding hearings and unveiling the truth about the CCP’s threats to America. When looking at the big picture of our nation’s relationship with the CCP, this is just one small piece of the patterns of aggression we’ve seen from the CCP. I am committed to exposing all of their actions and planning for a future where we can feel safe from the threats of the CCP and negotiate from a place of strength.
We must do all we can to prevent a pandemic like the one we just experienced never happens again. It’s past time for the Biden Administration to declassify the assessments, make information available to the public, and start building back the public’s trust through transparency and accountability. The truth must always prevail, and I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure the CCP does not continue to exert their patterns of aggression against the frontiers of the free world.
