Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 on Monday to declassify all government intelligence related to the origins of COVID.
The bill, also known as S. 619, passed both chambers of Congress this month following comments by FBI Director Chris Wray and former CDC Director Robert Redfield that COVID-19 most likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
INBOX: @POTUS has signed the bill declassifying Covid origins information, says he will “declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security”. pic.twitter.com/tEIF4inHuN
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 20, 2023
Biden put out a statement saying he will release as much information as possible except for information deemed harmful to national security.
Today, I am pleased to sign into law S. 619, the “COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023.” I share the Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19). In 2021, I directed the Intelligence Community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of COVID-19, and that work is ongoing. We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics. My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID–19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.
China had condemned the legislation after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) put it forward last month.
“The move by the US Congress just shows that the US is going further and further down the wrong path of political manipulation. The so-called traceability report by the US intelligence agency is an attempt to ‘presume guilt’ on China. It is an attempt to shift the blame from its own failure to fight the epidemic to China,” CCP official Li Xiang wrote.
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