[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5379 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5379

 To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publish all 
  information in the possession of the Department of Health and Human 
  Services relating to the origin of COVID-19, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 8, 2023

Mr. Roy (for himself, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Brecheen, Mr. Biggs, and Mr. Moore 
 of Alabama) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publish all 
  information in the possession of the Department of Health and Human 
  Services 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 ``HHS COVID-19 Origin Transparency Act 
of 2023''.

SEC. 2. PUBLICATION OF HHS INFORMATION RELATED TO THE ORIGIN OF COVID-
              19.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in 
this section referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall--
            (1) except as provided in subsection (d), publish all 
        information described in subsection (b); and
            (2) submit a report to the Congress containing a summary of 
        each item of information that is described in subsection (b) 
        but withheld from such publication pursuant to subsection (d).
    (b) Information Described.--The information described in this 
subsection is any and all information in the possession of the 
Department of Health and Human Services (including any agency, office, 
operating or staffing division, and any other component of the 
Department, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, 
the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, the Health 
Resources and Service Administration, the Office of National Security, 
the Office of Inspector General, and any person under contract to the 
Department) relating to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) 
outbreak, coronavirus research including vaccine development, or the 
concealment of information about the COVID-19 outbreak, including any 
such information that consists of--
            (1) unpublished and unreleased records including--
                    (A) the report titled ``One Health Zoonotic Disease 
                Prioritization workshop in China'' (prepared by the 
                Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019) and 
                related records;
                    (B) all records pending authorization or other 
                approval from any organization of the People's Republic 
                of China;
                    (C) coronavirus research genetic sequence records 
                in the Sequence Read Archive of the National Institutes 
                of Health and all requests from higher educational 
                institutions, research institutions, or other persons 
                or entities in China to withdraw or delay sequence data 
                publication;
                    (D) all research applications submitted to an 
                agency of the Public Health Service seeking funding to 
                undertake coronavirus-related research that were not 
                funded by the relevant agency;
                    (E) all coronavirus records;
                    (F) all coronavirus research records, including--
                            (i) grant applications, grant research 
                        project annual progress reports, and final 
                        reports; and
                            (ii) records of compensation for each 
                        researcher--
                                    (I) who was an employee or 
                                contractor of the Government of the 
                                People's Republic of China or any 
                                entity (including any public 
                                university) controlled by such 
                                Government; and
                                    (II) whose compensation was funded 
                                in part, directly or indirectly, by the 
                                Department of Health and Human 
                                Services; and
                    (G) all records related to the suspension, denial, 
                termination, or other risk mitigation actions related 
                to coronavirus research projects;
                    (H) all records of the Office of Inspector General 
                of the Department of Health and Human Services that 
                include--
                            (i) hotline records, including all 
                        referrals from the operating divisions of the 
                        Department of Health and Human Services, 
                        including the National Institutes of Health;
                            (ii) communications related to potential 
                        misconduct by employees of the Department of 
                        Health and Human Services, including Anthony 
                        Fauci and Francis Collins;
                            (iii) communications related to potential 
                        monetary fraud or research misconduct involving 
                        grants of the National Institutes of Health, 
                        including any such grants awarded to EcoHealth 
                        Alliance; and
                            (iv) all EcoHealth Alliance audit records;
                    (I) all records involving EcoHealth Alliance 
                research projects and personnel including--
                            (i) all names, salaries, levels of effort, 
                        and Department of State clearances;
                            (ii) all peer review records; and
                            (iii) all financial records;
                    (J) all outbreak-related communication records 
                including observations, reports, memoranda, and 
                requests, except individually identifiable patient 
                health information, from--
                            (i) all personnel of the Department of 
                        Health and Human Services stationed in China;
                            (ii) all foreign nationals from China on 
                        visas sponsored directly or indirectly by the 
                        Department of Health and Human Services, 
                        including--
                                    (I) personnel located in the United 
                                States; and
                                    (II) personnel teleworking from 
                                China;
                    (K) all memoranda of understanding, data sharing 
                agreements, and intellectual property transfer 
                commitments between the Department of Health and Human 
                Services and academic or public health institutions in 
                the People's Republic of China, including--
                            (i) the Memorandum of Understanding for the 
                        Collaborative Program on Emerging and Re-
                        emerging Infectious Diseases;
                            (ii) all material transfer agreements and 
                        intellectual property transfer records related 
                        to coronavirus research and vaccine 
                        development; and
                            (iii) all agreements between Department of 
                        Health and Human Services-sponsored principal 
                        investigators and any organization involving 
                        the transfer of coronavirus research data to 
                        academic or public health institutions in the 
                        People's Republic of China; and
                    (L) analysis of the first 6,000 patients 
                hospitalized in Wuhan, China, of whom 1,100 had severe 
                COVID-19 disease;
            (2) a record pertaining to sick researchers in Wuhan, 
        China, during the fall of 2019, including for any such 
        researcher--
                    (A) the researcher's name, laboratory name, 
                laboratory role, symptoms, and date of symptom onset;
                    (B) whether the researcher was involved with or 
                exposed to coronavirus research in Wuhan research 
                laboratories;
                    (C) whether the researcher visited a hospital or 
                medical clinic while they were ill; and
                    (D) a description of any other actions taken by the 
                researcher that may suggest they were experiencing a 
                serious illness at the time;
            (3) a record pertaining to coronavirus research conducted 
        in cooperation with any Chinese national public research 
        university affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of 
        Industry and Information Technology of China, including Beihang 
        University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering 
        University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University 
        of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science 
        and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, PLA 
        Naval University of Engineering, PLA National Defence 
        University, PLA Information Engineering University, and the PLA 
        Academy of Military Science; and
            (4) a record pertaining to concerns of bioweapon programs 
        in China, including all records related to the evaluation and 
        analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a potential bioweapon, 
        including records from the Integrated Research Facility at Fort 
        Detrick.
    (c) Identification of Information Supplied to Intelligence 
Community.--In publishing information pursuant to subsection (a), the 
Secretary shall identify any such information that was supplied by the 
Department of Health and Human Services to any agency of the 
intelligence community in support of the intelligence community's 
COVID-19 origins assessments from the onset of the outbreak of COVID-19 
through the date of enactment of this Act.
    (d) Withholding of Certain Information.--Except as inconsistent 
with subsection (b), the Secretary may, in accordance with other 
applicable law, withhold or redact from publication under subsection 
(a)(1) any information that--
            (1) is classified and for which the Department of Health 
        and Human Services was not the original classification 
        authority;
            (2) is individually identifiable information; or
            (3) is national security, confidential commercial, or 
        proprietary information.
    (e) Declassification.--The Secretary shall--
            (1) to the extent necessary to publish pursuant to 
        subsection (a)(1) all information described in subsection (b), 
        declassify any such information for which the Department of 
        Health and Human Services was the original classification 
        authority; or
            (2) certify in the publication that no such classified 
        information exists.
    (f) Failure To Publish.--Beginning on the day that is 91 calendar 
days after the date of enactment of this Act--
            (1) of the unobligated amounts appropriated or otherwise 
        made available to the immediate Office of the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services--
                    (A) there is rescinded an amount equal to 
                $1,000,000 for each calendar day on which the Secretary 
                of Health and Human Services fails--
                            (i) to make the publication required by 
                        subsection (a)(1); or
                            (ii) to submit the report required by 
                        subsection (a)(2); and
                    (B) the amount so rescinded shall be deposited into 
                the general fund of the Treasury for the sole purpose 
                of reducing the national debt; and
            (2) the Secretary may not reprogram or use any other funds 
        to replace any funds that are rescinded under paragraph (1).
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