We recently exposed how the sketchy U.S. nonprofit that funneled taxpayer cash to the Wuhan Animal Lab for treacherous coronavirus experiments on animals repeatedly broke federal law by failing to disclose how much of your money it shipped to the notorious virus lab.

And we told you about how we quickly joined forces with Waste Warrior Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) to hold them accountable for secretively spending your money on cruel, dangerous and wasteful animal experiments.

READ my new op-ed with ⁦@WhiteCoatWaste⁩ ⬇️ https://t.co/CLAinN964x

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) April 6, 2021

Now, WCW founder and President Anthony Bellotti and Sen. Ernst published a new op-ed in a little outlet you might have heard of called Newsweek (!!)

Our joint op-ed shows precisely why the COST Act is so urgent …. and important. Taxpayers (and Congress itself) need to know if our money is being shipped overseas and wasted at dangerous and cruel labs like this.

Here’s a snippet:

A year ago, we exposed nearly $600,000 in NIH funding—American tax dollars—funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology by a U.S. non-profit….

While we can’t force Communist China to be more forthcoming about what was happening at the Wuhan lab, we can at least expect our own government to be open and transparent, right? Think again.

Not only was this long-standing law violated, but the NIH did nothing to enforce it or hold violators accountable for keeping their spending a secret.

Compliance is not optional. This is not China. The U.S. government is not above the law.

The NIH needs to answer questions about why it allowed funds to go to this lab and what it knew about the reported problems there. It also needs to explain why it broke federal spending transparency law that would have given Congress, and most importantly the American people, a heads up that tax dollars were shipped to a virus lab run by the CCP.

WIV’s coronavirus experiments were also receiving payouts from the Pentagon and the State Department. The existing funding disclosure law was only extended to the Defense Department spending this winter and it does not yet apply to the Department of State. The Cost Openness and Spending Transparency (COST) Act that we’re trying to pass now would help close this loophole. It combats secretive U.S. spending in foreign countries, extends common-sense transparency provisions across all federal agencies and withholds taxpayer funding for noncompliance.

Suppressing information might work in China, but we should not stand for it | Opinion https://t.co/gGHYmhMvfc

— Newsweek Opinion (@NewsweekOpinion) April 6, 2021

Taxpayers have the right to know who’s paying the bills… and who’s cashing the checks.

Please take a moment to tell Congress you want them to pass the COST Act so you can see how your money is being spent, hold animal experimenters accountable, and prevent future pandemics.