A bill requiring the director of national intelligence to make public information about the origins of Covid is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk after being passed by the House on Friday.
The bill, which would declassify information about the origin of the virus and any information linking it to a Chinese lab, passed the House unanimously 419-0, with 16 members not voting. The Senate passed the measure with unanimous consent last week.
The passage of the bill, titled the COVID-19 Origins Act of 2023, comes after it was revealed that the US Department of Energy concluded with “low confidence” that the COVID pandemic “likely” originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan. That was according to a classified report given to lawmakers leading the House and Senate intelligence committees, two sources previously confirmed to NBC News.
FBI Director Chris Wray. Meanwhile, a recent interview with Fox News said that “the FBI has long assessed that the origin of the pandemic is most likely a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan.”
Ray also complained that the Chinese government “is doing its best to sabotage and disrupt the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing, and that’s for everyone.” Unfortunate for.”
The bill was introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.
“For nearly three years, anyone asking whether COVID-19 originated as a laboratory leak outbreak was silenced and branded as a conspiracy theorist. “These prudent skeptics have now been proven,” Hawley said in a statement when the bill was introduced in February. “The American people deserve to know the truth.”
The Chinese government has denied the claims and has maintained that it has “always been open and transparent” about Covid.
“Based on the US intelligence agencies’ poor track record in forgery and deception, the conclusions they draw have no credibility,” foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said earlier this month.
Kyle Stewart Contribution,
