House Committee Approves Ban on Funding Wuhan Lab at Heart of Leak Controversy

Workers are seen next to a cage with mice (R) inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

The House Appropriations Committee has approved a ban on sending funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab at the heart of the controversy over the origin of the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a June 30 voice vote, members of the committee adopted a fiscal 2023 budget amendment (pdf) that explicitly precludes any funding to the Wuhan lab, which some U.S. lawmakers say is where the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, originated.