Senators Braun and Hawley reintroduce bill requiring Biden to declassify Wuhan lab leak intelligence

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) have reintroduced the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, requiring the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to any potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the origins of the COVID pandemic.

Senators Hawley and Braun’s COVID-19 Origin Act of 2021 passed the Senate unanimously in May 2021.

The Department of Energy recently concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak, according to a classified intelligence report provided to the White House and certain members of Congress.

Senator Mike Braun

“The ‘experts’, the mainstream media, and Big Tech have treated Americans as fringe conspiracy theorists for believing the credible theory that the COVID virus leaked from the Wuhan lab. The Biden administration has only started to publicly admit they were wrong as the evidence becomes overwhelming. This bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2021, and since then the Biden administration has continued to keep information about COVID’s origins secret. We need to know exactly what public health officials like Dr. Fauci knew about a lab leak when they were publicly downplaying it. The American people deserve transparency, free from censorship or spin. It’s time to declassify everything we know about COVID’s origins and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, now,” said Senator Mike Braun.

Senator Josh Hawley

“For nearly three years, anyone asking whether COVID-19 originated as a lab leak outbreak was silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist. Now, these prudent skeptics stand vindicated. The Biden administration must immediately declassify all intelligence reports pertaining to the origins of COVID-19 and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The American people deserve to know the truth,” said Josh Senator Hawley.