A group of Republican senators introduced legislation on Tuesday to create an inspector general at the National Institutes of Health to probe how the agency is doling out taxpayer money, which became an issue because of the money trail leading to China’s Wuhan lab.
The lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennesse, say greater accountability is needed at NIH after revelations it provided grants to the EcoHealth Alliance, which was studying coronavirus transmission with the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the COVID-19 outbreak.
“As the nation’s leading medical research agency, the NIH oversees thousands of researchers and institutes, and they managed a $45.