Ernst Forces Pentagon to Investigate Taxpayer-Funded Risky Research Overseas, Defund China’s Wuhan Lab

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) forced a review of Pentagon projects involving pathogens of pandemic potential around the world and is continuing her effort to cut off all taxpayer funding for risky research in China.

Specifically, Department of Defense (DoD) dollars will now be forbidden from supporting projects in China at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology, the likely source of the COVID-19 lab leak, and by the shady organization EcoHealth Alliance, which steered more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars to Chinese institutions for dangerous experiments on coronaviruses.

“No one in Washington knows the exact amount of tax dollars being exported to China because no one is keeping track,” said Ernst. “We are one step closer to stopping taxpayer dollars from being misspent to subsidize the mad scientists in China or anywhere else. I’m pulling the plug on this risky research and ensuring our defense dollars are making the world a safer, not more dangerous, place.”

“We applaud Sen. Ernst for her outstanding leadership dating back to early 2020 on efforts to investigate COVID’s origin and cut taxpayer funding to EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan lab, whose perilous partnership on dangerous gain-of-function animal experiments likely caused the pandemic. We finally cut off the Wuhan animal lab earlier this year but have exposed how the Pentagon is still raining millions in taxpayers’ cash on EcoHealth, who is currently planning to traffic hundreds of wild bats from Asia to the US for more treacherous animal experiments with exotic viruses that have 90-100 percent kill rates in humans. Taxpayers have a right to know how the DOD is spending their money, and we’re grateful to Sen. Ernst for demanding transparency and fighting this reckless government spending on animal experiments that threaten public health. Stop the money. Stop the madness,” said Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy at government watchdog group White Coat Waste Project.

The Ernst-led provisions included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act will:

• Audit DoD funds allocated over the past ten years to determine (1) if defense dollars may have been diverted to Chinese institutions, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance projects performed in China; and (2) where the Pentagon may be supporting risky research involving pathogens of pandemic potential in China or any other foreign country.
• Ban the DoD from providing any funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Fiscal Year 2024.
• Ban the DoD from funding EcoHealth projects in China in Fiscal Year 2024.

Background:

Ernst’s efforts will be critical to protecting taxpayer funding from being diverted to institutions in Communist China. The Pentagon has given over $47 million to EcoHealth since 2008—more than any other federal agency. The DoD also continues to finance numerous EcoHealth initiatives around the world, including $6 million for research on bat diseases in Asia, $6 million to examine wildlife viruses in the Philippines and India, and $5 million to study “high-risk pathogens” in Liberia.

Ernst has led the charge to permanently debar the Wuhan Institute and defund EcoHealth from receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars. An Ernst-requested investigation exposed how EcoHealth sent over $2 million U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan lab for risky experiments on bat coronaviruses. She also revealed over $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent on experiments and other projects in Russia and China.

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