Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., said she introduced two bills that would prevent American tax dollars from funding Chinese research projects.
According to a Feb. 10 news release, the Stop Funding Our Adversaries Act aims to prevent American tax dollars from being used to fund Chinese government research projects. The Protecting American Lives Act calls on the Food and Drug Administration to return pharmaceutical production to the U.S.
“We cannot trust the corrupt authoritarians running China with the health of the world, and Americans should not have their tax dollars go to projects that could endanger millions of Americans," Herrell said in the news release. “I introduced these bills to preserve the integrity of our scientific research and to protect the American people from the irresponsible and inhumane communist regime. We cannot entrust the health of our country to Xi Jinping's thuggery, especially in times of global crisis.”
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, reportedly sent money to a U.S.-based organization associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to research coronaviruses in bats, the BBC reported Aug. 2, 2021.
Testifying before Congress, Dr. Janet Woodcock said drug manufacturing moved out of the U.S. gradually in recent decades, according to an October, 29, 2019, FDA release. Woodcock, the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, said this holds true for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Nearly 75% of APIs consumed in the United States are manufactured outside of the country, including the 13% which are manufactured in China.
China more than doubled its number of registered facilities that produce APIs between 2010 and 2019, she said in the release. Data limitations prevent the FDA from determining the precise volume of API that China is actually producing, “or the volume of APIs manufactured in China that is entering the U.S. market, either directly or indirectly by incorporation into finished dosages manufactured in China or other parts of the world."
Herrell is a New Mexico native who served in the state's House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019, before being elected to represent New Mexico's largest congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to her website.
