WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republican Whip and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Ranking Member Steve Scalise (R-La.) today blasted Democrats’ politicization of the Select Subcommittee to attack the Trump Administration rather than conduct impartial congressional oversight of the pandemic. Since the panel’s inception, Democrats refused to investigate the origins of COVID-19; President Biden’s politically motivated decision-making; the Biden Administration’s failure to purchase more rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests; and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) actions sidelining scientific experts during the booster approval process. “Speaker Pelosi’s sham panel never was about credible oversight—it was all about creating yet another forum to continue their partisan vendetta of attacking President Trump. Instead of conducting impartial oversight of President Biden’s failed pandemic response, Democrats worked overtime to try covering up his failed actions. Democrats refused to investigate after we exposed the Biden White House manipulating the science to allow a radical teachers union to rewrite CDC guidance so they could make it easier to shut down schools. They refused to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and efforts by Dr. Fauci to quash the Wuhan lab leak theory. Democrats also failed to investigate the Biden Administration sidelining scientists during the booster approval process, and they have failed to hold former Governor Andrew Cuomo and other Democrat governors accountable for their deadly orders forcing COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes. The blue state governors’ failures have crushed learning opportunities for millions of children, undermined Americans’ trust in our institutions, placed Americans at risk for future pandemics, and denied grieving families the justice they deserve. “The American people deserve credible oversight, not repeated coverups. When Republicans are running the House next year, we will hold the Biden Administration and other government officials accountable and advance bills to protect Americans from future government abuse and mismanagement,” said Scalise. Republican Select Subcommittee staff today issued a memorandum outlining its findings from its oversight of the federal response to the pandemic over the past two years as well as the Select Subcommittee Democrats’ failures to provide impartial investigations.Below are the key findings. The full memorandum can be found here.
- The United States likely funded gain-of-function research on novel coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
- The scientific establishment, including Drs. Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, worked to suppress the lab leak hypothesis.
- The Biden Administration provided uncommon access to teachers unions to draft and edit official CDC guidelines so they could make it easier to keep schools closed, causing devastating learning loss for America’s young people.
- The governors of certain Democrat-led states, particularly New York, violated CDC and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance to force potentially COVID-19-positive patients back into nursing homes, causing thousands of unnecessary deaths.