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“Coronavirus (Executive Calendar)” mentioning Rand Paul was published in the Senate section on pages S5084-S5085 on July 27.
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The publication is reproduced in full below:
Coronavirus
Madam President, on another note, on June 8 of this year, I sent a letter--I came to the floor, I should say instead, to speak about my oversight activities with respect to the origins of the coronavirus. As part of that oversight, on March 8 and May 26 of this year, I wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services about its oversight of grants sent to EcoHealth Alliance.
The Department sent millions of dollars to EcoHealth. That group then subawarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of that taxpayer money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Reports have indicated that $600,000 to $826,000 was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
So, folks, what we have here is taxpayer money that was sent to the communist Chinese Government. That is a pretty scary proposition. When we send taxpayers' money to the Chinese Government, if there is no oversight done on that money, then we really don't have any idea how it is used. Just look at the news about China kicking the French out of the Wuhan laboratory.
China can't be trusted, period. But I am not sure bureaucrats share that same view. I am talking about bureaucrats of our government. To illustrate, Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that Chinese scientists are trustworthy; that ``we [really] always trust the grantee to do what they say.''
As a threshold matter, if a government worker doesn't show at least a little bit of skepticism about how a grant recipient is using the taxpayers' money, they aren't doing their job. That skepticism is healthy, and it is basic good government to question the recipient to make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to do with our money.
Dr. Fauci has also stated that the National Institutes of Health
``has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.'' That is a pretty confident statement.
When my colleague Senator Paul questioned Dr. Fauci on his position with respect to gain-of-function research, that same Dr. Fauci called my colleague a liar. Well, the way I see it, the only way that Dr. Fauci and the government can be so confident that no gain-of-function research was done is if they performed the proper oversight of the American taxpayers' money sent to China.
In both my letters to the Department of Health and Human Services, I asked that very question. So far, the Department of Health and Human Services has failed to answer the question.
On June 10 of this year at the Senate Finance Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Becerra what, if any, oversight was done. He didn't give me an answer. I asked again in a followup question for the record--still no response, even though all these people that come before a committee for nomination approval always say: We will answer your letters; we will answer the phone; we will testify. But no answer to that question yet.
The Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, has also been silent on what, if any, oversight was done on the grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Dr. Fauci has been silent on what, if any, oversight he did.
This is a simple and very important question for the government to answer. In other words, as you heard me say a few minutes ago, the public's business ought to be public. And without that sort of transparency, we don't have accountability, and we are entitled to have accountability on this kind of money.
The more that they deny the U.S. Congress an answer, the more it looks like these bureaucrats don't give a lick about the American people: the people they work for, the people who pay their salary.
Dr. Fauci is all over television and radio. You name it, he is on it. But, apparently, he and his counterparts can't find enough time to answer this very simple question: Did you do any oversight of the taxpayers' money you sent to EcoHealth, money that you knew was going to the communist Chinese Government? If so, please explain; if not, why not?
This should not be a difficult question to answer. Either you did or you didn't, and, either way, the American people deserve an explanation. And if they didn't do any oversight, then how can they confidently say the money wasn't used for gain-of-function research or other bad conduct?
We have lost over 600,000 Americans, and this body has spent trillions of dollars to support our economy and fight the virus. Congress and the American people have an absolute right to know what Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins did to oversee this money. Enough with the games. Just answer the question.
I understand that the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General is doing an audit of what, if any, oversight was done. They are supposed to be taking a deep dive on the grants, the cooperative arrangements, and other relationships the government had with EcoHealth Alliance.
The audit isn't just focused on what the National Institutes of Health did or didn't do to monitor the grants. The scope also includes what EcoHealth did or didn't do to manage the funds in accordance with Federal requirements. And the scope of that review, at least right now, is from 2014 to 2021.
I expect the inspector general to be aggressive and unrelenting in getting the records, the emails, and the memos; run the transcribed interviews and question everyone up the leadership chain; leave no stone unturned; and make as much as possible public.
If punches are pulled, then this IG audit will be a waste of everybody's time and taxpayers' money. The inspector general has a tremendous responsibility to get this job done right.
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