As
part of that oversight, on March 8th and May 26th of this year, I wrote to the
Department of Health and Human Services about its oversight of grants sent to
Eco Health Alliance.
The
Department sent millions of dollars to Eco Health.
That
group then sub-awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of that taxpayer money to
the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Reports
have indicated that $600,000 to $826,000 was
sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
So,
folks, what we have here is taxpayer money that was sent to the communist
Chinese government.
That’s
a pretty scary proposition.
When
we send taxpayer money to the Chinese government, if there’s no oversight done
on that money, then we really don’t have any idea how it’s used.
China
can’t be trusted. Period. Just look at the news about China kicking the French
out of the Wuhan lab.
But,
I’m not sure bureaucrats share the same view.
To illustrate, Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that Chinese scientists are trustworthy, that “we generally always trust the grantee to do
what they say.”
As
a threshold matter, if a government worker doesn’t show at least a little bit
of skepticism about how a grant recipient is using taxpayer money, they aren’t
doing their job.
That
skepticism is healthy and it’s basic good government to question the recipient
to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do.
Dr. Fauci has also stated that the National Institutes of Health
“has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan
Institute of Virology.”
That’s
a confident statement.
When
my colleague, Senator Paul, questioned Dr. Fauci on his position with respect
to gain-of-function research, Dr. Fauci called my colleague a liar.
Well,
the way I see it, the only way Dr. Fauci and the government can be so confident
that no gain-of-function research was done is if they performed oversight of
the money sent to China.
In both my letters to the Department of Health and Human
Services, I asked that question.
So
far, the Department of Health and Human Services has failed to answer the
question.
On
June 10th of this year at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, I asked Secretary
Becerra what, if any, oversight was done.
He
didn’t have an answer.
I
asked again in follow-up questions for the record.
Still
no response.
The
Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, has also been
silent on what, if any, oversight was done on the grants to the Wuhan Institute
of Virology.
Dr.
Fauci has been silent on what, if any, oversight he did.
This
is a simple and very important question for the government to answer.
The
more they deny the United States Congress an answer, the more it looks like
these bureaucrats don’t give a lick about the American people.
Dr.
Fauci is all over television, radio – you name it, he’s on it.
But,
apparently he and his counterparts can’t find enough time to answer this very
simple question:
Did
you do any oversight of the taxpayer money you sent to Eco Health, money that
you knew was going to the communist Chinese government? If so, please explain.
If not, why not?
This
isn’t difficult.
Either
you did or you didn’t. And either way, the American people deserve an
explanation.
And
if they didn’t do any oversight, then how can they confidently say the money
wasn’t used for gain-of-function research or other bad conduct?
We’ve
lost over 600,000 Americans and this body has spent trillions of dollars to
support our economy.
Congress
and the American people have an absolute right to know what Dr. Fauci and Dr.
Collins did to oversee the money.
Enough
with the games – just answer the question.
I
understand that the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector
General is doing an audit of what, if any, oversight was done.
They’re
supposed to be taking a deep dive on the grants, cooperative arrangements and
other relationships the government had with Eco Health Alliance.
The
audit isn’t just focused on what the National Institutes of Health did or
didn’t do to monitor the grants.
The
scope also includes what Eco Health did or didn’t do to manage the funds in
accordance with federal requirements.
And
the scope of that review, at least right now, is from 2014-2021.
I
expect the Inspector General to be aggressive and unrelenting.
Get
the records, the emails and the memos.
Run
the transcribed interviews and question everyone up the leadership chain.
Leave
no stone unturned and make as much public as possible.
If
punches are pulled, this audit will be a waste of everyone’s time and taxpayer
money.
The
Inspector General has a tremendous responsibility to get this done the right
way.
