Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) introduced the Stop Adversarial Funding Expenditures for Laboratories Act. This legislation would prohibit any head of a Federal agency from providing assistance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and other laboratories in adversarial countries.
“Holding hostile countries accountable should never be a partisan issue,” said Rep. Stewart. “This legislation would ensure the United States does not fund dangerous research in these unaccountable, foreign research labs. Our foreign adversaries, particularly China, have proven they should not and cannot be trusted with American taxpayer dollars to conduct laboratory research and experiments.
“This bill would codify the bipartisan amendment passed in June and will ensure dangerous research will not continue in uncontrolled environments. China is currently the greatest threat to our nation, and cutting American funding to our opposition’s research – particularly Chinese projects – should not be a partisan issue.”
Rep. Chris Stewart – a member of both the House Committee on Appropriations and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – secured language in the Fiscal Year 2022 bill to ensure no funding will go to the WIV. The House Committee on Appropriations later voted to advance Rep. Stewart’s bipartisan amendment that would defund research labs that assist the WIV or any other laboratories located in a country determined by the Secretary of State to be a foreign adversary, including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
Several initiatives have arisen since Rep. Stewart’s amendment passed earlier this year. However, many U.S. agencies have ignored the transparency, accountability, and misconduct of adversarial countries – and have provided millions of dollars to fund projects in China and Russia.
Full bill text can be found here.
