Lawmakers demand answers after Trump administration abruptly terminates coronavirus research grant

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Bill Foster (D-IL) sent a letter today to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar demanding answers about the Trump Administration's decision to abruptly terminate a National Institutes of Health grant that was awarded to EcoHealth Alliance to conduct research on bats and the coronaviruses.

Recent press reports have indicated that the grant was canceled because a portion of the funding would have been given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for on-the-ground research. In their letter, the lawmakers requested that the agency provide them a full briefing on the details surrounding the termination of the award.

"Given the potential for this study to inform our knowledge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission, it is deeply concerning that it may have been canceled for political reasons in the midst of the current pandemic," the lawmakers wrote. "It isalways important that federal research priorities are driven by science-based decisions. This is especially true in a time that requires unparalleled investment in research that may help bring an end to this public health crisis."

"As the Committees of jurisdiction over public health and science, we need to better understand the decision to terminate EcoHealth Alliance's NIH grant," the lawmakers continued. "We are especially concerned given Dr. Anthony Fauci's, Director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, assertion at a Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on June 23 that ‘the grant was canceled because NIH was told to cancel it.' In order to understand how this decision was reached, we request a briefing to be delivered by July 15, 2020."

DeGette servers as chair of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel – which oversees HHS – while Foster chairs the Science, Space, and Technology committee's oversight panel. Pallone and Bernice Johnson chair the full Energy and Commerce and Science, Space and Technology committees respectively.

The full text of the letter is available here.