Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA-06) has introduced an amendment in the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill to require the declassification of intelligence related to any potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similar legislation was passed unanimously by the Senate recently.
Cline’s amendment states that funding authorized for the World Health Organization in the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill would be withheld until the Director of National Intelligence has declassified the aforementioned information.
“From the very beginning, the Chinese Communist Party covered up the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and hindered investigations at every turn,” Cline said. “Life as we know it was put on pause for more than a year, and the American people, as well as the rest of the world, deserve answers. If there is any intelligence related to the origins of the pandemic, it must be released to ensure both transparency and accountability.”
Cline also introduced a separate amendment that would withhold funding from the WHO until the Secretary of State certifies and reports to Congress that the WHO has conducted a transparent international forensic investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and implemented amendments to the International Health Regulations to improve transparency in response to outbreaks of infectious diseases.
A copy of the amendments can be found here and here.
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