S. 619
One Hundred Eighteenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty three
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 Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘COVID–19 Origin Act of 2023’’.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) identifying the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID–19) is critical for preventing a similar pandemic from
occurring in the future;
(2) there is reason to believe the COVID–19 pandemic
may have originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; and
(3) the Director of National Intelligence should declassify
and make available to the public as much information as pos-
sible about the origin of COVID–19 so the United States and
like-minded countries can—
(A) identify the origin of COVID–19 as expeditiously
as possible, and
(B) use that information to take all appropriate meas-
ures to prevent a similar pandemic from occurring again.
SEC. 3. DECLASSIFICATION OF INFORMATION RELATED TO THE
ORIGIN OF COVID–19.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall—
(1) declassify any and all information relating to potential
links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin
of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19), including—
(A) activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of
Virology with or on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army;
(B) coronavirus research or other related activities per-
formed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the
outbreak of COVID–19; and
(C) researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
who fell ill in autumn 2019, including for any such
researcher—
(i) the researcher’s name;
(ii) the researcher’s symptoms;
(iii) the date of the onset of the researcher’s symp-
toms; S. 619—2
(iv) the researcher’s role at the Wuhan Institute
of Virology;
(v) whether the researcher was involved with or
exposed to coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute
of Virology;
(vi) whether the researcher visited a hospital while
they were ill; and
(vii) a description of any other actions taken by
the researcher that may suggest they were experi-
encing a serious illness at the time; and
(2) submit to Congress an unclassified report that con-
tains—
(A) all of the information described under paragraph
(1); and
(B) only such redactions as the Director determines
necessary to protect sources and methods.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.