Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast introduced legislation to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill seeks to allow the U.S. government to withhold debt payments to China equal to the cost incurred by the U.S. in response to the pandemic. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Department of Energy (DOE) found that the virus likely originated from a lab leak in China. (RELATED: Congress To Advance Bill Allowing President Biden To Ban TikTok)
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“For years, mainstream media dismissed the lab leak as a conspiracy theory, and as a result, the CCP and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were allowed to deny, deny, deny,” Mast said in a statement to the DCNF.
“Now even our own Department of Energy is admitting that a lab leak is the most likely cause, and it’s past time for China to take responsibility for the deception, cover-up, and outright lies that led to millions of deaths and massive economic consequences,” Mast said.
The Chinese Communist Party previously pushed against the World Health Organization for wanting to investigate the origins of the virus. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have tried to probe the root of the COVID pandemic possibly stemming from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
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