WASHINGTON
– The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG)
today released a report requested by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Marco
Rubio (R-Fla.) showing that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) does no national security risk assessment when engaging the services of
genetic testing and analysis firms that may have connections or partnerships
with foreign governments, including the Chinese government.
“When
taxpayer dollars and data are flying out the door to entities with connections
to the CCP or other foreign adversaries, our government ought to be taking
every step available to protect national security. This is especially true
after the apparent governmental failures to properly oversee how American
taxpayers funded entities like the Wuhan Institute of Virology. CMS needs to
quickly adopt the inspector general’s recommendations before sending any more
taxpayer dollars and data to entities that are a potential threat to our
security, including Chinese government-affiliated programs,” Grassley said.
“It
is ridiculous that our current policies enable the Chinese Communist Party to
access Americans’ genomic data,”
Rubio said. “There is absolutely
no reason that Beijing, which routinely seeks to undermine U.S. national
security, should be handed the genomic data of American citizens. We must take
action to address these vulnerabilities, and I am ready to work with my
colleagues in the Senate on
a
solution.”
Grassley
and Rubio
first
wrote to the OIG in June 2019 seeking a broad review of payments made in relation
to genetic data testing and analysis, and the national security risk assessment
practices of CMS when making those payments. The senators directly raised
concerns with HHS and CMS
in
October 2019. In January, the senators asked the OIG to
expand
its review of payments made to entities like the Beijing Genomic Institute
(BGI) to include those made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full
text of the HHS OIG report can be found
HERE.
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