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In my last year in Congress and as Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, it is my mission to provide the American people the answers they deserve on the origins of COVID-19 and our government’s policies during the pandemic. After a year-long pattern of deliberate obstruction and relentless stonewalling by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), I led a hearing this week to question Assistant Secretary for Legislation Dr. Melanie Egorin about HHS’s repeated failure to produce documents the Subcommittee has requested.

Under questioning, Dr. Egorin refused to answer questions approximately 40 times.

You can watch my line of questioning to Dr. Egorin here.

In addition to not being able or willing to provide timelines on when HHS will produce the documents Congress has requested, Dr. Egorin repeatedly testified she doesn’t even know how many documents are responsive to our requests. The complete inability to answer basic questions is a slap in the face to the American people who suffered so much during the pandemic, as well as to the people’s representatives charged with this investigation in Congress.

Here are just a few examples of the many, many requests I’ve made that HHS has refused to comply with:

I sent a letter to HHS almost a year ago, on February 13, 2023, requesting documents on the origins of COVID-19. The Subcommittee was forced to send two follow-up letters, schedule two staff meetings, and threaten subpoenas before receiving unique documents. Out of the 10,000 pages HHS finally produced, more than 1,000 were sent the night before the hearing. Additionally, the majority of the 10,000 pages HHS delivered had already previously been made public, sometimes in less redacted forms than what HHS sent us. Other pages were non-responsive, or copies of press articles.

In another letter, I requested documents on the approval process for the COVID-19 vaccine. HHS produced fewer than 300 pages. In response to a letter I sent for documents related to the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Department has not produced a single page. HHS again failed to produce even one page in response to a letter we sent requesting documents on CDC Director Cohen’s statement about annual COVID-19 boosters.

In my opening statement Wednesday, I cite many additional examples. You can watch here.

The hearing exposed that whether in a public forum, behind closed doors, or in written communications, the Biden Administration attempts to delay, confuse, and mislead the Subcommittee’s investigation. The Department refused to meet even minimal standards of compliance with Congressional oversight.

No longer.

Compliance with Congress is not voluntary. Federal agencies are funded by the American people and are accountable to ‘We, the People’ through the People’s representatives in Congress. As Chairman, I will not allow HHS to obstruct our investigation or skirt Congressional oversight.

You can watch my closing remarks here.