President Joe Biden has signed into law a measure sponsored by an Indiana senator requiring the declassification of data and records on the origins of the 2019 coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19.
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., led the successful multiyear effort to direct U.S. intelligence agencies to publicly release what they know about how the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Braun repeatedly has claimed the virus started infecting humans following a "lab leak" in China, where Braun contends researchers were conducting experiments involving coronaviruses, possibly on behalf of China's People's Liberation Army.
The new law specifically mandates release of all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19, including details on the health status of individual researchers in late 2019, prior to COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic.
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"President Biden made the right choice to sign Senator Josh Hawley’s and my bill to declassify all intel about the Wuhan lab and the origins of COVID. The American people deserve more than spin and 'the narrative' — they deserve the facts, and now more are on the way," Braun said.
Under the law, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has 90 days to declassify the relevant records pertaining to the Chinese lab and COVID-19 and submit to Congress an unclassified report on the origins of COVID-19 with only those redactions necessary to protect sources and methods of intelligence gathering.
The declassification directive was approved without opposition earlier this month in both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Democratic president said Monday he was pleased to sign the proposal into law because he shares Congress' goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origins of COVID-19.
"In 2021, I directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of COVID-19, and that work is ongoing. We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics," Biden said.
"My administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID–19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security," he added.
Braun has represented the Hoosier State in the U.S. Senate since 2019. The Jasper native is running next year for the Republican nomination for Indiana governor instead of seeking a second, six-year term in the Senate.