Washington, DC — The US Senate has approved a proposal from Iowa Senator Joni Ernst that would ban U.S. tax dollars from funding any of China’s state-run labs.
That would including the Wuhan Institute where new reports suggest researchers were seriously ill before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in 2019. Ernst says China continues to obstruct international efforts to discover COVID-19’s origins.
The ban on sending federal funding to China’s research laboratories is now included in a bipartisan bill designed to address China’s global ambitions. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says not another dime of U.S. tax dollars should support research in the communist country.
Ernst’s amendment passed on a voice vote late Tuesday as senators considered several amendments offered by Republicans and Democrats.
