Matt Rosendale: “My amendment No. 134 reduces the salary of Vincent Munster, chief of the Virus Ecology Section of the National Institute…”

“My amendment No. 134 reduces the salary of Vincent Munster, chief of the Virus Ecology Section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to $1. This is going to be on the same subject matter and, actually, in the same location, unfortunately. Specifically, he was the lead researcher on the 2018 project to infect Egyptian fruit bats with a coronavirus obtained from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. He also actively collaborates on projects with the disgraced EcoHealth Alliance. I am pleased that the base text of this legislation prohibits any funds from going toward the EcoHealth Alliance. EcoHealth was first investigated for its involvement in mismanaging NIH-funded gain-of- function research. The Department of Health and Human Services inspector general confirmed that EcoHealth mismanaged the grant to the Wuhan laboratory, didn't properly report the gain-of-function experiments, and misspent taxpayer funds. Furthermore, Munster is trying to help EcoHealth establish a new bat lab in the United States with bats shipped from Asia. Specifically, on April 1, 2020, Munster wrote a letter of support for the Colorado State University bat research center. Munster showed a major lack of judgment in endorsing an EcoHealth-led project to import and experiment on bats when the entire world was learning that a bat virus from Asia caused COVID-19.…”