H.R. 229: World Deserves To Know Act

World Deserves To Know Act

This bill requires sanctions on certain members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and officials of Chinese health agencies. It also addresses related issues.

The President must impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions on any foreign person who is a CCP official and who is knowingly responsible for or complicit in (1) the disappearances of whistleblowers and citizen journalists in China relating to COVID-19, or (2) limiting free speech and academic freedom in China relating to COVID-19.

The President must also impose such sanctions on specified individuals who have leadership positions in China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention and China's National Health Commission (NHC).

The authority to impose such sanctions shall end when the President certifies to Congress that an independent and unimpeded investigation into the potential origin of COVID-19 from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has taken place.

The bill also bars federal funds and certain federal student assistance from going to institutions of higher education that enter into a contract with any element or China-based affiliate of the NHC.

Federal funding to the National Academy of Sciences may not be used to enter into a contract with any element or China-based affiliate of the NHC.

The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress a review of all funds that the National Institutes of Health have made available to the NHC since FY2010. This report must also be publicly available.