Ron Johnson actually said...

What possible reason is there to be producing what nature probably could not produce? Why are we doing this?

We may not have a smoking gun, but the circumstantial evidence is strong that this was a man-made virus.

We need to do a lot of oversight, not just on the origin, which is an important aspect of this, but on everything.

Again, that's the rationale they used. The thing they really scared the public on was the 1918 Flu Pandemic.