[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 88 (Thursday, May 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S3257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 1820. Mr. MARSHALL (for himself and Ms. Ernst) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1260, to
establish a new Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the
National Science Foundation, to establish a regional technology hub
program, to require a strategy and report on economic security,
science, research, innovation, manufacturing, and job creation, to
establish a critical supply chain resiliency program, and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place in title V, insert the following:
SEC. 5__. ESTABLISHMENT OF SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE OUTBREAK
OF THE CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA.
(a) Establishment of Committee.--There is established a
select investigative committee of the Senate, to be known as
the Select Committee on the Outbreak of the Coronavirus in
China (referred to in this Act as the ``select committee''),
to investigate the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in or
around Wuhan, China.
(b) Membership.--
(1) Composition.--The select committee shall be composed of
not more than 12 Senators, of whom 6 shall be appointed by
the Majority Leader and 6 shall be appointed by the Minority
Leader.
(2) Chairperson; vice-chairperson.--The Majority Leader
shall designate 1 member of the select committee as the
chairperson of the select committee, and the Minority Leader
shall designate 1 member of the select committee as the vice-
chairperson of the select committee.
(3) Exemption.--For purposes of paragraph 4 of rule XXV of
the Standing Rules of the Senate, service of a Senator as a
member or chairperson of the select committee shall not be
taken into account.
(4) Vacancies.--Any vacancy in the select committee shall
be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
(c) Investigation and Report.--
(1) Investigation.--The select committee shall conduct a
full and complete investigation and study regarding--
(A) identification of the source of the COVID-19 virus and
the route of human-to-human transmission beginning in or
around Wuhan, China;
(B) secret research and gain-of-function zoonic research at
the Wuhan Institute of Virology (referred to in this section
as ``WIV'');
(C) training operations and safety standards at the WIV;
(D) cases of researchers at the WIV laboratory becoming
sick or demonstrating COVID-19-like symptoms in 2019 or 2020;
(E) cables and other communications from 2017 to 2021 from
employees of the Department of State, the Central
Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Health and Human
Services regarding activities and research at the WIV;
(F) response from officials of the Department of State and
National Security Council in Washington, DC to the cables and
other communications described in subparagraph (E);
(G) funding distributed to the WIV by the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National
Institutes of Health, and institutions of higher education of
the United States;
(H) funding of gain-of-function research by the National
Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases during the 2014-2017 moratorium on
such research;
(I) research and possible leaks from the Wuhan Center for
Disease Control;
(J) information regarding efforts by the Chinese Communist
Party to silence journalists and doctors, destroy samples of
the COVID-19 virus, and block United States and other foreign
investigators, including investigations surrounding the
Chinese Communist Party's misinformation campaign through
social media, traditional news outlets, and other propaganda
outlets;
(K) the origination of claims that the pandemic spread from
a seafood market in Wuhan, China and the closure and
sanitation of the market;
(L) actions taken by the World Health Organization,
including actions taken by Director-General Dr. Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other World Health Organization
officials, to spread Chinese misinformation and the failure
of the World Health Organization to meet the Organization's
charter to prevent the international spread of disease; and
(M) the impact of failing to shut down travel in and out of
Wuhan, China, the Hubei province, and greater China.
(2) Reports.--The select committee--
(A) shall issue a final report to the Senate of its
findings from the investigation and study described in
paragraph (1) by not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act; and
(B) may issue to the Senate such interim reports as the
select committee determines necessary.
(d) Authorities and Powers.--
(1) In general.--For the purposes of this section, the
select committee is authorized in its discretion--
(A) to make investigations into any matter within its
jurisdiction;
(B) to make expenditures from the contingent fund of the
Senate;
(C) to employ personnel;
(D) to hold hearings;
(E) to sit and act at any time or place during the
sessions, recesses, and adjourned periods of the Senate;
(F) to require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance of
witnesses and the production of correspondence, books,
papers, and documents;
(G) to take depositions and other testimony;
(H) to procure the services of individual consultants, or
organizations thereof, in accordance with section 202(i) of
the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C.
4301(i)); and
(I) with the prior consent of the government department or
agency concerned and the Committee on Rules and
Administration, to use on a reimbursable basis the services
of personnel of any such department or agency.
(2) Oaths.--The chairperson of the select committee or any
member thereof may administer oaths to witnesses.
(3) Subpoenas.--A subpoena authorized by the select
committee--
(A) may be issued under the signature of the chairperson,
the vice-chairperson, or any member of the select committee
designated by the chairperson; and
(B) may be served by any person designated by the
chairperson, the vice-chairperson, or other member signing
the subpoena.
(4) Committee rules.--The select committee shall adopt
rules (not inconsistent with the rules of the Senate and in
accordance with rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the
Senate) governing the procedure of the select committee,
which shall include addressing how often the select committee
shall meet, meeting times and location, type of
notifications, notices of hearings, duration of the select
committee, and records of the select committee after
committee activities are complete.
(e) Termination.--The select committee shall terminate on
the day after the date the report required under subsection
(c)(2)(A) is submitted.
(f) Exercise of Rulemaking Power.--This section is enacted
by Congress--
(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate,
and as such it shall be part of the rules of the Senate and
supersede other rules only to the extent that it is
inconsistent with such other rules; and
(2) with full recognition of the constitutional right of
the Senate to change the rules (insofar as they refer to the
Senate) at any time, in the same manner, and to the same
extent as in the case of any other rule of the Senate.
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