Ernst introduces legislation to probe COVID origins, ensure Wuhan lab never gets US defense dollars

Sen. Joni Ernst introduced three amendments to the Defense funding bill that would investigate the origins of COVID-19 and ensure that defense dollars never go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the pandemic is suspected of starting.

Ernst, an Iowa Republican, said the amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act will address questions about "Who in Washington knew what happened in Wuhan? When did they know it? And why did they cover it up from the world?"

The amendments, announced Friday, would ensure the Wuhan Institute never receives defense dollars and that the Pentagon stops giving payments to EcoHealth Alliance, a research nonprofit that gave money to the Wuhan lab to study coronaviruses.

Ernst also proposed for the defense bill to include orders for an investigation to be conducted into whether EcoHealth allocated funding from the U.S. defense department to create enhanced pathogens or gave it to the Wuhan Institute or any other Chinese lab.   

"We should not be supporting an organization that won’t tell the truth about how it spent the tax dollars of hardworking Americans," Ernst said. "And we certainly shouldn’t be paying them to do any more experiments on bat viruses!"

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.