Pause the confirmation process for a pair of nominees of President Joe Biden until they clarify their roles in ending the Trump administration’s “original” investigation into the origins of COVID-19, a trio of Republican senators requested of leadership.
Sens. Roger Marshall, Marsha Blackburn, and Bill Hagerty on Tuesday called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to delay the confirmation of Bonnie Jenkins, who is under consideration to become the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
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“While Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins served on the State Department Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition Team, the Biden Administration ended an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that was investigating whether the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” the senators wrote in a letter. “We urge you to delay any further action on this nomination until Ambassador Jenkins answers key questions related to her role.”
The lawmakers asked that Jenkins answer who she met with from the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, whether the agency is exploring gain-of-function research, and if there were any efforts to communicate with the Chinese government on what and when it knew about COVID-19, among other things.
The senators provided a deadline of July 12 for Jenkins to answer the questions and said they would give the nominee an opportunity to answer the questions “in classified setting” if necessary.
In a separate letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and ranking member Jim Risch, the senators requested a delay on the nomination of Eliot Kang for the role of assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation until he responds to a series of inquiries similar to the ones sent to Jenkins.
Kang was serving as the acting assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation when the Biden administration allegedly closed the investigation.
Kang was given a deadline of July 13.
The Biden administration was accused in May of shutting down the State Department’s efforts to investigate whether COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory, though the agency asserted that the initial inquiry was already completed.
“There has been incorrect reporting that the Biden-Harris administration shut down an investigation by the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. That reporting is incorrect,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told the Washington Examiner in late May. “In February and March of 2021, the team’s findings were briefed to AVC and Policy Planning policy staff in the new administration. With the report delivered, the work was ended.”
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Shortly after news broke of the administration folding the initial investigation, Biden ordered the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble” efforts to determine the origins of COVID-19. The assessment was given a 90-day deadline at the time, which sets up the inquiry by the end of August.
