[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 90 (Monday, May 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3381-S3382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1973. Mr. MARSHALL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
to amendment SA 1502 proposed by Mr. Schumer 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, insert the following:

     SEC. ____. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING AN 
                   INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF 
                   COVID-19.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 3,000,000 
     individuals around the world.
       (2) Understanding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic is 
     essential to addressing our vulnerabilities and preventing 
     future crises.
       (3) In May 2020, the World Health Assembly did not 
     authorize the type of comprehensive investigation into the 
     origins of COVID-19 that was required, and instead passed a 
     significantly limited compromise resolution, with Chinese 
     government support, which did not explicitly include in its 
     scope the possibility of a research-related accident.
       (4) The 2020 World Health Assembly resolution and its terms 
     of reference, which were negotiated privately between the 
     World Health Organization (in this section referred to as 
     ``WHO'') and Chinese authorities, handed the Chinese 
     government control over the joint-study process by giving the 
     Chinese government veto power over which international 
     experts were allowed to participate in the joint study and by 
     agreeing that most primary research would be carried out by 
     Chinese teams without ensuring broad access to primary data 
     by international experts.
       (5) As a result of these terms, the significant structural, 
     procedural, and analytical shortcomings of the joint study, 
     and the severe restrictions imposed by Chinese authorities, 
     the WHO-convened joint study into the origins of COVID-19 was 
     prevented from giving a balanced consideration of the 
     multiple theories of the origin of COVID-19.
       (6) Only 4 of the 313 pages of the joint-study team report 
     and its annexes addressed the possibility of a laboratory 
     accident, and no thorough examination of the lab incident 
     hypothesis was carried out by the joint-study team.
       (7) Some of the international experts on the joint-study 
     team stated that they lacked the means and resources to 
     properly investigate the research-related accident 
     hypothesis, and they were neither able nor meant to do such a 
     full investigation but instead were acting as a ``study 
     review group''.
       (8) WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus 
     commented on March 30, 2021, the day the joint-study report 
     was released, ``I do not believe that [the joint-study 
     team's] assessment [of a possible lab incident] was extensive 
     enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more 
     robust conclusions . . . potentially with additional missions 
     involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy.''.

[[Page S3382]]

       (9) The WHO Director-General further commented, ``As far as 
     WHO is concerned all hypotheses remain on the table . . . We 
     have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must 
     continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as 
     we do . . . It is clear that we need more research across a 
     range of areas, which will entail further field visits.''.
       (10) The March 30, 2021 Joint Statement on the WHO-convened 
     COVID-19 Origins Study by the United States and 13 other 
     countries recognized the severe shortcomings of the joint-
     study process and called for ``a transparent and independent 
     analysis and evaluation, free from interference and undue 
     influence.''.
       (11) In spite of the devastation the COVID-19 pandemic has 
     caused in the United States and around the world, no process 
     currently exists to ensure a comprehensive investigation into 
     the origins of COVID-19.
       (12) Such an investigation is essential for ensuring this 
     type of crisis never happens again for the benefit of all 
     people, all nations, and future generations.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that--
       (1) a comprehensive scientific and forensic investigation 
     to determine the origins of COVID-19 must be conducted 
     immediately, with full and unrestricted access to all 
     relevant records, samples, and personnel, particularly in 
     China, and that such investigation must fully explore all 
     possible origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an 
     exclusively ``natural'' zoonosis in the wild, human 
     contamination in an animal farm, and a research-related 
     accident;
       (2) the United States delegation to the World Health 
     Assembly should do everything in its power, in concert with 
     allies and partners around the world, to ensure that a full 
     and unrestricted international scientific and forensic 
     investigation into the origins of COVID-19, with full access 
     to all relevant records, samples, and personnel in China, 
     will be authorized by the World Health Assembly and 
     implemented with extreme urgency; and
       (3) if the Chinese government does not, by the end of the 
     2021 World Health Assembly, indicate its full support for a 
     comprehensive investigation to determine the origins of 
     COVID-19 with unrestricted access to all relevant records, 
     samples, and personnel in China, then the United States 
     Government should immediately begin planning a parallel 
     comprehensive and data-driven investigation into the origins 
     of COVID-19, in concert with willing partner governments and 
     experts around the world.

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