requests of hearing witnesses given time constraints on Member questioning during congressional hearings.
A few days after the hearing, Committee staff indicated to the NIH it was doing due diligence regarding a potential investigation into the matter in the 118th Congress and asked the NIH to provide the information that was referenced in Dr. Tabak’s prepared response to Congresswoman Harshbarger. The NIH refused and insisted on a formal request in a letter from the Committee Chair. As of the date of this report, the NIH has refused to provide copies of Dr. Tabak’s prepared statement despite the Congresswoman’s request and multiple requests from Committee staff.
Subsequent emails from the NIH staff imply that the information prepared for Dr. Tabak’s response at the February 2023 hearing was consistent with HHS’s factually incorrect response on April 26, 2023.
March 30, 2023, Letter[1]
On March 30, 2023, having not received a formal response to the October 31, 2022, letter, Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Health Subcommittee Chair Brett Guthrie, and O&I Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith sent a letter to the NIH launching an investigation into the MPXV research proposal, requesting documents and information.
April 26, 2023, Letter from HHS Assistant Secretary for Legislation[2]
On April 26, 2023, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Legislation sent a response letter to the Committee that only provided limited information about IBC consideration and approval of the 2015 proposal but also included the following erroneous and misleading statements:
- “This study has not been formally proposed […] This type of research would require formal proposal to be submitted for review, and the proposal would need to undergo
- ↑ Letter from The Honorable Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican Leader, et al, H. Comm. on Energy & Commerce to Lawrence A. Tabak, Acting Director, National Institutes of Health (Mar. 30, 2023), https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chairs-rodgers-guthrie-and-griffith-demand-answers-on-nih-planned-experiments-using-more-lethal-group-of-monkeypox-virus.
- ↑ Letter, supra note 33.
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