Originally published June 15, 2023 4:00 pm PDT
The Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) have unanimously voted in support of an amendment requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide all intelligence assessments related to the origins of COVID-19.
This comes after DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s previous testimony, confirming that the department had not investigated the origins of the global pandemic.
“Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously supported U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY), Ranking Member of the Committee, amendment to the Offices of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and Health Security Act of 2022 mandating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provide this Committee, along with the House Homeland Security Committee, all intelligence assessments related to the origins of COVID-19,” the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs reported in a press release.
The lack of investigation by DHS, an agency pushing for a permanent Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, has raised concerns.
The Committee finds it alarming “that an agency advocating for a permanent Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office is not planning to investigate how biological elements could have been weaponized to the detriment of our national and public health security.”
The statement further noted that “The American people deserve transparency from their government on the origins of COVID-19, and this amendment would have provided Congress critical information as it continues its oversight on this issue.”
The need for transparency and information is becoming increasingly urgent as the request for these assessments from Senators Paul and Johnson three months ago remains unfulfilled.
In a second effort for transparency and safety, Senator Rand Paul has also introduced an amendment requiring a risk assessment of gain-of-function research from DHS.
This comes after Secretary Mayorkas confirmed that “the Department had conducted no work to assess the national security risk of gain of function research and that DHS had no plans to do so in the future.”
With these amendments, Senator Paul and the Republicans on the Committee are pushing for DHS to engage more thoroughly in the critical aspects of national security, including the evaluation of the role that gain-of-function research might have played.
The final word of the press release emphasized this sentiment, saying “This amendment would allow for DHS to evaluate the role that Gain of Function has to our national security, something DHS should already be doing.”
