COVID–19 Origin Act of 2023

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1346 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1346

    To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify 
information relating to the origin of COVID-19, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 3, 2023

Mr. Gallagher (for himself, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Rutherford, 
  Mr. Cloud, Mr. Green of Tennessee, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Pfluger, and Mr. 
 Webster of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
 to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and in addition to 
 the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify 
information relating to the origin of COVID-19, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 
        (COVID-19) is critical for preventing a similar pandemic from 
        occurring in the future;
            (2) there is reason to believe the COVID-19 pandemic may 
        have originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; and
            (3) the Director of National Intelligence should declassify 
        and make available to the public as much information as 
        possible about the origin of COVID-19 so the United States and 
        like-minded countries can--
                    (A) identify the origin of COVID-19 as 
                expeditiously as possible, and
                    (B) use that information to take all appropriate 
                measures to prevent a similar pandemic from occurring 
                again.

SEC. 3. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO THE ORIGIN OF COVID-
              19.

    Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Director of National Intelligence shall--
            (1) declassify any and all information relating to 
        potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the 
        origin of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), including--
                    (A) activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of 
                Virology with or on behalf of the People's Liberation 
                Army;
                    (B) coronavirus research or other related 
                activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology 
                prior to the outbreak of COVID-19; and
                    (C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology 
                who fell ill in autumn 2019, including for any such 
                researcher--
                            (i) the researcher's name;
                            (ii) the researcher's symptoms;
                            (iii) the date of the onset of the 
                        researcher's symptoms;
                            (iv) the researcher's role at the Wuhan 
                        Institute of Virology;
                            (v) whether the researcher was involved 
                        with or exposed to coronavirus research at the 
                        Wuhan Institute of Virology;
                            (vi) whether the researcher visited a 
                        hospital while they were ill; and
                            (vii) a description of any other actions 
                        taken by the researcher that may suggest they 
                        were experiencing a serious illness at the 
                        time; and
            (2) submit to Congress an unclassified report that 
        contains--
                    (A) all of the information described under 
                paragraph (1); and
                    (B) only such redactions as the Director determines 
                necessary to protect sources and methods.
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