Outraged lawmakers are demanding answers about American tax dollars going to firms controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Federal investigators want to know if U.S. tax dollars have directly or indirectly supported research in China into enhancing pathogens capable of causing worldwide pandemics, such as the COVID-19 outbreak that killed more than 1 million Americans in 2020 and 2021.
The investigation seeks to “determine the extent to which the [Department of Defense] awarded federal funds directly or indirectly through grants, contracts, sub-grants, subcontracts, or any other type of agreement or collaboration, during the 10-year period from 2014 through 2023, to Chinese research labs or to fund research or experiments in China or other foreign countries designed to enhance pathogens of pandemic potential,” according to Department of Defense Inspector General Robert Storch.
Mr. Storch’s comment came in an April 2 letter to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) that the two lawmakers made public on Wednesday. They had initially asked the Department of Defense (DOD) inspector general in January 2024 about the issue of federal funds going to support such research.
The investigation was mandated by Section 252 of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The two Republican lawmakers introduced amendments in their respective chambers to the NDAA concerning the investigation.
Ms. Ernst and Mr. Gallagher have been pushing officials at the DOD, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other federal departments since the COVID-19 pandemic to come clean about links to Chinese biomedical research activities.
Mr. Gallagher was chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party before resigning from Congress on April 19.
Tracking the Funds
In an April 24 statement, Ms. Ernst said the DOD should defend the United States, not support research with the potential to harm the nation.
“While bureaucrats are blindly giving away taxpayer funds, China doesn’t even have to steal our research. It’s clear Americans deserve a detailed inventory of all the dangerous dollars sent overseas, which is why I’ve launched an investigation to track down every cent,” she said.
“We may never get answers about what really happened in Wuhan from Dr. Fauci, EcoHealth, or China, but this investigation enables us to pinpoint where another man-made pandemic could possibly originate and prevent that from happening. As more evidence emerges that our own tax dollars are advancing the interests of our adversaries, it’s clear we need greater transparency and accountability of how, why, and especially where our money is going,” she continued.
In her statement, the Iowa Republican pointed to a recent analysis by auditors at Open The Books that found the DOD provided nearly $52 million to Chinese firms, including a $6 million contract for development services on the U.S. military’s command software program.
Open The Books founder and president Adam Andrzejewski was also quoted in the senator’s statement.
“Empty rhetoric can often seem like its own Beltway pathogen, but today Senator Ernst has made a serious contribution to the health and security of every American. Whatever one may think about the controversy over COVID-19’s origins, it has brought into focus risky viral research that has become common practice for scientists and often funded with taxpayer dollars,” he said.
“We cannot close the book on the pandemic and the government’s response without understanding the full scope of the research in foreign countries that could come back to haunt us, or in this case infect us. It’s time for a serious discussion of the potential risks and benefits of funding this research, not more obfuscating by the public health complex in this country.”
Every Dime, in Real Time
Mr. Andrzejewski’s group is a nonprofit organization that compiles and publishes virtually all spending data from federal and state governments, as well as major municipal authorities, on the internet.
The group describes its purpose as publishing “every dime, online, in real time.”
The statement from the Iowa Republican further noted that “one defense contractor, EcoHealth Alliance, plotted to conceal its plans to divert tax dollars from DOD to China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology for dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses. Despite rejecting that particular proposal, the Pentagon has paid over $47 million to EcoHealth since 2008—more than any other federal agency—and continues to finance the organization’s risky research in Asia and Africa. EcoHealth previously passed on more than a million dollars from two other federal agencies to the Wuhan Institute without reporting the transactions.”
Ms. Ernst named the DOD as the recipient of her April 2024 Squeal Award, a monthly “prize” she publicizes to draw public attention to waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
Another nonprofit group working with Ms. Ernst to expose U.S. tax dollars being awarded to Chinese groups for controversial biological and medical research is the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP).
“We commend Sen. Ernst for demanding answers about whether the Pentagon shipped taxpayers’ money to an adversary’s unaccountable animal labs for dangerous virus experiments that threaten public health and national security,” WCWP’s senior vice president, Julian Goodman, is quoted as saying in the senator’s statement.
“Four years ago, we first exposed secretive taxpayer funding for EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan lab’s treacherous gain-of-function animal experiments that violated U.S. policies and that experts believe created COVID. There’s stunning evidence that Dr. Anthony Fauci, EcoHealth, and the Chinese government tried to cover it up and that EcoHealth planned to sneakily funnel Pentagon funds to the CCP-run Wuhan animal lab for coronavirus engineering experiments,” Mr. Goodman continued.
Dr. Fauci, the former head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was a prominent figure in the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
“Despite all this, WCWP and Sen. Ernst have documented how since the pandemic began, the Pentagon has raised $26 million in new tax funding from WMD programs to EcoHealth and how tax dollars continue to flow to CCP-run animal labs with virtually no oversight. Stop the money. Stop the madness!” he said.
EcoHealth Responds
In a lengthy statement to The Epoch Times, an EcoHealth Alliance spokesman rigorously denied having used any U.S. funds it received from DOD, HHS, or other federal agencies to support research in China on pathogens known to be capable of causing deadly pandemics among humans.
“Mr. Goodman states, ‘Four years ago, we first exposed secretive taxpayer funding for EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan lab’s treacherous gain-of-function animal experiments that violated U.S. policies and that experts believe created COVID.’ This research funding is not ’secretive’—it was and is a matter of public record, as are all projects supported by funding awards from the National Institutes of Health.
“Further to this, EcoHealth Alliance did not support ‘gain-of-function’ research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), nor were any policies violated. Any assertions to the contrary are based either on misinterpretation, or willful misrepresentation of the actual research conducted.
“The NIH defines ‘gain-of-function’ as research that will create new viral strains with ‘enhanced transmissibility or virulence’ for viruses that are already (1) ‘likely highly transmissible and likely capable of wide and uncontrollable spread in human populations;’ and (2) ‘likely highly virulent and likely to cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans.’ Because the SARS-related research conducted by EcoHealth Alliance and the WIV dealt with bat coronaviruses that had never been shown to infect people, let alone cause significant morbidity and/or mortality in humans, by definition it was not gain-of-function research.
“This was confirmed by NIH on July 7, 2016, in a letter to EcoHealth Alliance made public via Freedom of Information Act requests stating ‘NIAID is in agreement that the work proposed … is not subject to the GoF research funding pause.’ This was also stated by NIH spokesperson Elizabeth Deatrick in comments to the press.”