118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 619
AN ACT
To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify
information relating to the origin of COVID–19, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
†S 619 ES
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Origin Act 2
of 2023’’. 3
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
It is the sense of Congress that— 5
(1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Dis-6
ease 2019 (COVID–19) is critical for preventing a 7
similar pandemic from occurring in the future; 8
(2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 9
pandemic may have originated at the Wuhan Insti-10
tute of Virology; and 11
(3) the Director of National Intelligence should 12
declassify and make available to the public as much 13
information as possible about the origin of COVID– 14
19 so the United States and like-minded countries 15
can— 16
(A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as ex-17
peditiously as possible, and 18
(B) use that information to take all appro-19
priate measures to prevent a similar pandemic 20
from occurring again. 21
SEC. 3. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO 22
THE ORIGIN OF COVID–19. 23
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-24
ment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence 25
shall— 26 3
†S 619 ES
(1) declassify any and all information relating 1
to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Vi-2
rology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 3
2019 (COVID–19), including— 4
(A) activities performed by the Wuhan In-5
stitute of Virology with or on behalf of the Peo-6
ple’s Liberation Army; 7
(B) coronavirus research or other related 8
activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of 9
Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19; 10
and 11
(C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of 12
Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019, including 13
for any such researcher— 14
(i) the researcher’s name; 15
(ii) the researcher’s symptoms; 16
(iii) the date of the onset of the re-17
searcher’s symptoms; 18
(iv) the researcher’s role at the 19
Wuhan Institute of Virology; 20
(v) whether the researcher was in-21
volved with or exposed to coronavirus re-22
search at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 23
(vi) whether the researcher visited a 24
hospital while they were ill; and 25 4
†S 619 ES
(vii) a description of any other actions 1
taken by the researcher that may suggest 2
they were experiencing a serious illness at 3
the time; and 4
(2) submit to Congress an unclassified report 5
that contains— 6
(A) all of the information described under 7
paragraph (1); and 8
(B) only such redactions as the Director 9
determines necessary to protect sources and 10
methods. 11
Passed the Senate March 1, 2023.
Attest:
Secretary. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 619
AN ACT
To require the Director of National Intelligence to
declassify information relating to the origin of
COVID–19, and for other purposes.