GOP leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are requesting that the National Institutes of Health preserve records related to the origins of the COVID-19 virus as they gear up to take control of the committee next year.
House Republicans aim to ramp up investigations into the origins of the pandemic at the helm of key oversight committees, which will give them wide-ranging powers, including the ability to issue subpoenas for testimony from health officials, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci.
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FDA PLANS TO EASE RULES ON BLOOD DONATIONS FROM GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN: REPORT
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Republican leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Republican leader on the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Republican leader on the subcommittee on health, directed the NIH to keep all records relevant to their inquiries into the origins of the pandemic.
“NIH’s persistent lack of transparency with members of its authorizing committee of jurisdiction is troubling,” the leaders wrote in a letter to Dr. Lawrence Tabak, acting director of the NIH. “Between March 18, 2021, through October 31, 2022, we sent a total of twelve letters requesting information from NIH that have gone largely unanswered related to the origins of COVID-19 and NIH’s grant to EcoHealth Alliance, and three other topics.”
GOP leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have been investigating the pandemic’s origins since 2021, particularly looking into a theory that the coronavirus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
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Chris Krepich, a Republican spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the Washington Examiner earlier this month that Republicans on the committee plan to lead a “robust oversight strategy,” leading inquiries into a range of topics from the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response to the fentanyl crisis.
While Democrats on the health committees have led hearings focused on the coronavirus response during their tenure, Republicans are likely to ramp up inquiries into the Biden administration.
