September 22, 2023

Dear Friend,

I want to share with you recent actions I’ve taken to increase transparency from our public health officials.

My colleagues and I recently sent a letter to Lawrence A. Tabak, Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) demanding answers regarding NIH employees receiving payments from companies affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Open The Books, a government watchdog organization released a report identifying at least 34 different Chinese companies that made royalty payments to NIH scientists from 2008 to 2021. Furthermore, the report also found that at least 59 payments originated from the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. This is a CCP controlled subsidiary connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the organization that multiple federal agencies now believe initially leaked the COVID-19 virus.

Our letter expressed the national security implications these payments raise, as well as the potential influence healthcare companies may have over public health agencies engaged in developing and regulating products and responding to public health threats.

The American people deserve answers and should know if their public health officials are following science and making decisions based purely on objective information - not personal financial motives. I have and will continue to work to hold the government accountable and pursue transparency for the American people.

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Your servant,

Daniel Webster
Member of Congress