A group of House and Senate Republicans sent letters Friday to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Nationals Science Foundation (NSF) calling on them to terminate federal funding to EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., which gave taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The letter, first obtained by the Daily Caller, was spearheaded by Pennsylvania Rep. Guy Reschenthaler. In it, lawmakers from both chambers of Congress condemned the agencies’ recent decisions to award grants to EcoHealth Alliance and demanded both agencies end the grant funding to EcoHealth.
Republican lawmakers have grilled former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci for not responding to their inquiries regarding a 2014 grant the NIH awarded to EcoHealth, which EcoHealth then used in part to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (RELATED: Fauci Personally Funded, Edited EcoHealth Study On Bat Viruses After Pandemic Already Began)
EcoHealth provided $600,000 in the form of NIH subgrants to the Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2019 to study bat-based coronaviruses. (RELATED: US Grant To Wuhan Lab To Enhance Bat-Based Coronaviruses Was Never Scrutinized By HHS Review Board, NIH Says)
“It is a gross abuse of hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to continue to fund EcoHealth Alliance,” Reschenthaler told the Caller before sending the letter. “EcoHealth and its president, Peter Daszak, are complicit in failing to comply with federal law and collaborating with a Chinese Communist Party secret laboratory. I am proud to work with [Iowa] Sen. [Joni] Ernst, [Kansas] Sen. [Roger] Marshall, and [Michigan] Rep. [Lisa] McClain on holding the Biden Administration accountable to end this relationship with this negligent organization.”
In late September, Ernst introduced legislation that would prohibit federal funding to EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. The bill, first obtained by the Caller, stipulates that “[n]o funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law may be made available for any purpose to EcoHealth Alliance, Inc, including any subsidiaries and related organizations that are directly controlled by EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.”
READ THE LETTER HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“Because EcoHealth broke federal laws, withheld evidence, and conducted dangerous research in unsafe conditions, this group should never be trusted to put its hands on taxpayer dollars or bats ever again,” Ernst told the Caller. “Let’s defund EcoHealth and launch a real scientific investigation to find out once and for all what was really happening in Wuhan, China, so the same mistakes are never repeated again.”
Many Republican lawmakers have called for Fauci’s resignation after thousands of his emails from the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic were published by The Washington Post and Buzzfeed News in June. The emails contained comments about wearing masks, the lab leak theory and more. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Joni Ernst Introduces Legislation To Prohibit Federal Funding To EcoHealth Alliance)
“EcoHealth Alliance’s animal experiments should be de-funded, not re-funded. As we first exposed, this shady group funneled US tax dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for dangerous animal experiments that likely caused the pandemic, skirted a federal ban on gain-of-function research, repeatedly violated transparency law and obstructed investigations into COVID’s origins. Yet, EHA has continued to receive millions of taxpayer dollars from agencies like the NIH and NSF,” Tristan Daedalus, the Government Affairs Director at White Coat Waste Project told the Caller.
“We applaud Sen. Ernst and Rep. Reschenthaler for leading efforts to ensure that taxpayers are not forced to fund this reckless rogue lab contractor any longer. Stop the money, stop the madness,” Daedalus added.
The NIH and NSF did not immediately respond to the Caller’s inquiries.