U.S. SENATE – Today, U.S. Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the Stop China-Originated Viral Infectious Diseases (COVID) Act to ensure the Chinese Communist Party faces consequences for its role in spreading the coronavirus. The Stop COVID Act will empower Americans to sue China in U.S. court and seek compensation for the devastating harm the deadly virus has caused to the economy and human life.

Last month, Senators McSally and Blackburn announced their intent to introduce the Stop COVID Act when the Senate came back into session. Senator Daines has since joined the effort as a cosponsor.

The Stop COVID Act will make China legally and financially liable for unleashing the COVID-19 infection on our country. Americans will have the legal tools to sue China in the U.S. federal court system for creating and worsening this worldwide pandemic. The legislation builds on existing law in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and eliminates sovereign immunity for states that spread biological agents. As the coronavirus death toll and financial losses mount, China should be forced to pay the costs of these damages to the American people.

The bill text for the Stop COVID Act may be found here.

Background:

  • On April 20, Sen. McSally and Blackburn announced their intent to introduce the STOP COVID Act.
  • On April 15, Sen. McSally spoke with Fox Business about the letter she sent to the WHO requesting information about its role in the Chinese government’s coronavirus cover-up.
  • On April 14, Sen. McSally sent a letter to the WHO requesting information ahead of a congressional hearing to investigate the WHO’s role in helping Communist China cover up information regarding the threat of the coronavirus.
  • On April 9, Sen. McSally urged leading international health and wildlife organizations to take aggressive action toward a permanent global ban of live wildlife markets, also known as wet markets
  • On April 8, Sen. McSally sent a letter to the UN opposing the appointment of a Chinese official to the United Nations Human Rights Council Consultative Group.
  • On April 7, Sen. McSally told Fox News that China was to blame for deaths of thousands of Americans.
  • On April 2, Sen. McSally called for the immediate banning of China’s wet markets following reports they have reopened despite being linked to the first cases of COVID-19 in the country’s Hubei province.
  • On April 1, Sen. McSally called for the Director-General of the World Health Organization to resign.
  • On March 25, Sen. McSally cosponsored Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) resolution calling for an international investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cover-up of the early spread of COVID-19.
  • On March 20, Sen. McSally called on America to stop outsourcing to China the manufacturing of items that are critical to our national security.
  • On March 5, Sen. McSally urged local and state officials to turn down any transportation project bids from companies owned by or affiliated with the Chinese government. 
  • On March 4, Sen. McSally introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the 2022 Winter Olympics out of China and rebid it to a country unless Beijing addresses its violation of human rights.

 

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