Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
The Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) redacted “key findings” in the public version of a report on dangerous pathogen research conducted in Chinese labs that was being funded with American taxpayer dollars.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, filed a letter Tuesday asking the DoD to release the unredacted version of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report and explain the taxpayer money sent to China to fund these experiments.
“With DoD secretly funding risky research on dangerous pathogens and diseases in China, this alarming Inspector General investigation demonstrates Washington hasn’t learned any lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote Ernst in her letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The letter explains that while some of the projects have been identified, the full extent is unknown, according to the OIG report titled “Review of DoD Funds Provided to the People’s Republic of China and Associated Affiliates for Research Activities or Any Foreign Countries for the Enhancement of Pathogens of Pandemic Potential.”
“This is due to DoD not sufficiently tracking or monitoring expenditures made from its own contracts and grants. Additionally, Navy officials didn’t even bother responding to the OIG’s specific questions,” Ernst wrote.
The information surrounding the projects, funded by taxpayer dollars, is required by law to be disclosed to the general public, due to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, Ernst noted.
“The description of the project omits any mention of China or the collaboration with a company closely affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that may be playing a role in the regime’s genocide of ethnic minorities,” Ernst wrote.
Ernst has been involved with investigating the National Institutes of Health and its funding of the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology to try and determine the truth surrounding the Covid pandemic.
“It is deeply troubling that the government, especially DoD, cannot account for how much taxpayer money is being sent to China or why and it is hiding what it does know from the public,” Ernst said.
The senator’s letter requests that the Pentagon release the fully unreacted and uncensored version of the DoD report.
“It is deeply troubling that the government, especially DoD, cannot account for how much taxpayer money is being sent to China,” Ernst said. “Or why and it is hiding what it does know from the public.”
Also, in response to the redacted report, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is reintroducing legislation that will require further transparency with taxpayer dollars that are sent to adversarial nations, such as China. The bill is titled the TRACKS Act.
“We cannot allow a single penny from hardworking Americans to go to foreign adversaries actively working against America and our interests,” Stefanik said. “This desperately needed legislation ensures that bureaucrats are held accountable for their reckless and irresponsible spending that is lining the pockets of countries like Communist China.”
Kamden Mulder is a summer intern at The Federalist. She is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in American Studies and Journalism.