Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is fighting SB 1260 which calls for an increase in scientific research funding, by introducing an amendment to ensure gain of function research is banned from receiving any government funds. He’s sponsoring this move after reports that the coronavirus may have originated from Wuhan’s Institute of Virology lab.

“We don’t know whether the pandemic started in a lab in Wuhan or evolved naturally,” Paul said in a statement. “While Washington bureaucrats deny funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, experts believe otherwise. My amendment will ensure that this never happens in the future.”

Paul took to the Senate floor for the second time Tuesday to promote his amendment. In the meanwhile, he also pointed out the National Science Foundation’s wasteful spending.

“We spend about $8 billion a year with the National Science Foundation,” Paul said. “This bill’s going to increase their funding by 68% . . . don’t you think the American people deserve to know where their money is being spent?” He started with an example from the National Institute of Health, a sister organization to NSF. They spent over $800k to study the sexual promiscuity of Japanese Quails.

And the list goes on. Every poster he shared on the floor he also tweeted out online. He shared studies that cost anywhere from $30,000 to $1.5 million just to study inconsequential animal behaviors.

“We should not reward these people with more money,” Paul said. But, most importantly, “There’s a great deal of circumstantial evidence now that NIH money went to the Wuhan Virology Institute,” Paul said. So, he made his amendment because “the entire world’s economy” is at stake.

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