Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M., (R-Ohio) introduced the Foreign Gain-of-Function Research Prevention Act of 2021 to prevent federal dollars from going to fund gain-of-function research in foreign adversarial nations.

Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Brian Babin, D.D.S., (R-Texas), Paul Gosar, D.D.S., (R-Ariz.), Neal Dunn, M.D., (R-Fla.), John Joyce, M.D., (R-Pa.), Ronny Jackson, M.D., (R-Texas), Mariannette Miller-Meeks, M.D., (R-Iowa), Chris Stewart, (R-Utah), Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), and Buddy Carter, R.Ph., (R-Ga.) join as original cosponsors of the bill.

“Evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 likely leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and we must continue pressing to uncover the truth. Regardless, the pandemic has exposed that U.S. taxpayer dollars have been funneled to the very lab that conducts this sensitive and dangerous research,” said Congressman Brad Wenstrup. “We cannot allow this grave and potentially devastating research to continue in uncontrolled environments, and that begins with banning any Federal dollars from directly or indirectly going to fund projects conducted by our foreign adversaries, like China.”

Background:

The Foreign Gain-of-Function Research Prevention Act of 2021 bans federal dollars from directly or indirectly going to fund gain-of-function research in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, as well as any other country the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence, deem necessary. You can read the text here.

Congressman Wenstrup serves as a cochair of the GOP Doctors Caucus – the largest group of medical professionals in Congress. He is a surgeon and serves as a colonel in the United States Army Reserve, where he sees patients at Walter Reed Medical Center and serves as Medical Policy Advisor at the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve.

Congressman Wenstrup was chosen to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2015. He is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Defense Intelligence and Warfighter Support.