The 419-0 vote was final approval of the bill, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
Debate was brief and to the point: Americans have questions about how the deadly virus started and what can be done to prevent future outbreaks.
The order to declassify focused on intelligence related to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, citing “potential links” between the research that was done there and the outbreak of COVID-19, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020.
The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the pandemic was most likely the result of the virus being leaked from China's Wuhan Laboratory, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
Meanwhile, the FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
