II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 619
To require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information
relating to the origin of COVID–19, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH1, 2023
Mr. H
AWLEY(for himself, Mr. BRAUN, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. LEE, and Mr.
S
COTTof Florida) introduced the following bill; which was read twice,
considered, read the third time, and passed
A BILL
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Origin Act 4
of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of Congress that— 7
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•S 619 CPS
(1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Dis-1
ease 2019 (COVID–19) is critical for preventing a 2
similar pandemic from occurring in the future; 3
(2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 4
pandemic may have originated at the Wuhan Insti-5
tute of Virology; and 6
(3) the Director of National Intelligence should 7
declassify and make available to the public as much 8
information as possible about the origin of COVID– 9
19 so the United States and like-minded countries 10
can— 11
(A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as ex-12
peditiously as possible, and 13
(B) use that information to take all appro-14
priate measures to prevent a similar pandemic 15
from occurring again. 16
SEC. 3. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO 17
THE ORIGIN OF COVID–19. 18
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-19
ment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence 20
shall— 21
(1) declassify any and all information relating 22
to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Vi-23
rology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 24
2019 (COVID–19), including— 25
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•S 619 CPS
(A) activities performed by the Wuhan In-1
stitute of Virology with or on behalf of the Peo-2
ple’s Liberation Army; 3
(B) coronavirus research or other related 4
activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of 5
Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID–19; 6
and 7
(C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of 8
Virology who fell ill in autumn 2019, including 9
for any such researcher— 10
(i) the researcher’s name; 11
(ii) the researcher’s symptoms; 12
(iii) the date of the onset of the re-13
searcher’s symptoms; 14
(iv) the researcher’s role at the 15
Wuhan Institute of Virology; 16
(v) whether the researcher was in-17
volved with or exposed to coronavirus re-18
search at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; 19
(vi) whether the researcher visited a 20
hospital while they were ill; and 21
(vii) a description of any other actions 22
taken by the researcher that may suggest 23
they were experiencing a serious illness at 24
the time; and 25
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•S 619 CPS
(2) submit to Congress an unclassified report 1
that contains— 2
(A) all of the information described under 3
paragraph (1); and 4
(B) only such redactions as the Director 5
determines necessary to protect sources and 6
methods. 7
Æ
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