Senate Chamber Erupts In Cheers After Amendment Eliminating Gain Of Function Research In China Gets Passed

This doesn’t happen to often my friends.

The Senate Chamber which is usually filled with disagreement had a very brief moment of unity when members of the Senate unanimously voted on an amendment proposed by Sen. Rand Paul that aims to stop gain of function research in China.

Both Republicans and Democrats voted unanimously to stop using tax payer dollars to fund gain of function research in China.

Senator Rand Paul Paul addressed the Senate floor before the Amendment was passed and said  “Gain-of-function research, where we take a deadly virus, sometimes much more deadly than COVID, and then we increase its transmissibility to mammals is wrong,”.

He followed it up by saying “Any gain-of-function research should not be funded in China with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and I recommend a yes vote”.

Watch the very rare moment of unity here:

SENATE: The Senate chamber erupts into cheers after an amendment proposed by @RandPaul that bans US funding of gain-of-function research in China is passed by unanimous voice vote pic.twitter.com/8fQ6hAWpuW

— Forbes (@Forbes) May 25, 2021

WATCH: Senate Chamber Erupts In Cheers After Passing Sen. Paul’s Amendment To Ban Funding Chinese Gain-Of-Function Research https://t.co/aZr8PAUeH0 pic.twitter.com/N4fAit0KKW

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) May 27, 2021

The Washington Examiner covered the story and had these details to report:

Cheers could be heard in the Senate chamber after an amendment introduced by Sen. Rand Paul to ban the funding of gain-of-function research in China was passed unanimously.

“Gain-of-function research, where we take a deadly virus, sometimes much more deadly than COVID, and then we increase its transmissibility to mammals is wrong,” Paul said when introducing the amendment. “Any gain-of-function research should not be funded in China with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and I recommend a yes vote.”

Paul’s amendment was then sent to a voice vote and was approved, eliciting cheers from throughout the chamber.

The amendment comes two weeks after Paul confronted Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing, pressing the infectious disease expert on whether the National Institutes of Health was funding gain-of-function research in China.

Senate Cheers as Rand Paul's Amendment to Halt Taxpayer Funds for China's Gain-of-Function Research Passes
https://t.co/JrPPLaXbm4

— RedState (@RedState) May 26, 2021

The Epoch Times covered the Senate’s rare bipartisan moment too:

An amendment to the Endless Frontier Act that would ban the use of U.S. tax dollars to fund “gain-of-function” research in China was adopted by the Senate on a voice vote on May 25.

The amendment was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and co-sponsored by Republicans Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

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“No funds made available to any federal agency, including the National Institutes for Health, may be used to conduct gain-of-function research in China,” the amendment said.

The amendment defines gain-of-function research as “any research project that may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity or transmissibility in mammals.”

That’s the same definition the National Institutes for Health (NIH) used when implementing a funding moratorium on gain-of-function research from 2014 to 2017. The moratorium lapsed during the previous Congress.

Paul’s amendment follows a growing debate in Congress and the media over the issue of whether the CCP virus—also known as the novel coronavirus—originated due to a leak, accidental or otherwise, from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), or from transmission to humans via bat meat sold in an open-air market in Wuhan. The latter is the official explanation of the Chinese regime.

For Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to get passed unanimously is a shock to many people.

If this vote was taken one year ago Dems would be quick to label Paul as  xenophobic.