Morgan Griffith's Work Year Report

From US Representative Morgan Griffith, R-VA-9:

"

The 118^th Congress served as a launching pad for numerous actions taken in the 119^th Congress.

House Republicans reintroduced commonsense policies that first secured House passage in the 118^th Congress.

One bill, the Laken Riley Act which I repeatedly voted for, makes it easier for law enforcement to arrest criminal illegal aliens for certain crimes. This bill received swift consideration and passage in both the House and Senate.

A second bill is the HALT Fentanyl Act. I was the proud House sponsor of this legislation to permanently designate lethal fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs. The bill also made researching Schedule I drugs easier so that we can work to better understand the impacts of these substances on human health.

Like the Laken Riley Act, this bill received swift consideration in both chambers of Congress.

Both of these bills not only won support in the 119^th Congress, but from the President as well. President Trump signed these bills into law to help protect American communities.

Some of my actions in the 118^th Congress have influenced further action at the federal level.

During that time, I served as the Chairman of the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Moreover, I was a leading Energy and Commerce member on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

During my leadership on these panels, I routinely participated in oversight of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with particular interest in American public health agencies engaged in risky research and gain-of-function research projects.

Our investigative work demanded answers from public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci.

My findings led me to introduce the Risky Research Review Act. This bill outlines key reforms to make American-funded research more safe, more transparent and more accountable.

To continue momentum on this front, I reintroduced the bill in the 119^th Congress with Senator Rand Paul. But the Trump Administration is actively responding to my concerns.

In July 2026, the Trump Administration announced a new government policy for stopping high-risk life sciences research.

The federal policy prohibits American funding of dangerous gain-of-function research in both domestic and foreign settings and aims to establish stronger oversight for life sciences research that could present significant risks to human health.

The Trump Administration further limits federal support for research in countries or institutions that lack appropriate biosafety, biosecurity and oversight standards.

While I will still push for my legislation to enshrine necessary guardrails into law for federally funded risky research, these federal actions are steps in the right direction.

A separate health care policy I investigated under my Chairmanship in the 118^th Congress concerned the implementation and oversight of the organ donation and transplant system.

I led a hearing to spotlight issues with our organ transplant programs and discuss the failures of the groups responsible for the procurement of organs, Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs).

In particular, I highlighted alarming allegations that were previously raised to my Subcommittee’s attention.

We received reports that an OPO had planned to operate on prospective organ donors who showed signs of life!

Another allegation claimed that somebody mouthed the words “help me” just before doctors were ready to commence an organ harvesting procedure.

The patient survived, but this disturbing detail reinforced Congressional desires to make the organ transplant process more safe and less risky.

These reports reflected concerns about Network for Hope, one federally designated OPO, and its management and operating procedures.

Upon hearing these troubling allegations, my Oversight Subcommittee brought in medical experts to understand the organ transplant health care landscape and determine the frequency at which these incidents happen.

Following my investigation on the issue, the Trump Administration has worked to protect prospective organ donors and patients awaiting lifesaving treatments.

In August 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made steps to decertify Network for Hope! This means the OPO can no longer do business with the federal government, and it loses a primary source of income.

This action is another critical federal step in working to ensure the safety and integrity of organ donation and securing U.S. health care programs to better protect patients.

I am proud to have been an early advocate on these issues to help sway federal action. I will continue to shine a light on issues that deserve attention from Congress, the President and the American people.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office.  You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov/. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives. 

" 

Morgan Griffith on COVID Hearings

Breaking news from US Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

"

“Powerful cabal of scientists from within NIH helped draft anti lab-leak narrative.”

That headline about the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was the headline that Co-Conspirator 1, generally believed to be EcoHealth Alliance’s former President Dr. Peter Daszak, feared would happen related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

EcoHealth Alliance is the company that got a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study bat coronaviruses. EcoHealth then gave some of the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China to study bat coronaviruses.

Now, we know they feared the headline because it was at least in part true!

While every man is entitled to his defense in court, former senior adviser at NIAID, Dr. David Morens, was recently indicted for the concealment of documents that were supposed to be kept under the Federal Records Act and/or available under the Freedom of Information Act.

Allegations include Morens editing, making suggestions and in part ghost-writing articles to lead the world into believing COVID-19 came from nature, not from a lab leak. In my opinion, this was done in an attempt to help EcoHealth deflect criticism of its involvement with WIV.

So perhaps, it was not a cabal of leading scientists inside the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But there was at least one scientist within NIH, and others outside of NIH, who were involved. You can’t have a conspiracy with just one person.

In the 118^th Congress, I served as Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee as well as one of the lead Energy and Commerce Committee members involved with the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

During this time, I grilled key figures involved with coronavirus lab research in Wuhan.

Daszak was one of the officials I questioned in an official hearing.

When I pressed Daszak on EcoHealth’s reports, he lied to me! It was evident that he was not being completely transparent with Congress.

Shortly after that, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) formally debarred Daszak and EcoHealth!

I believe that my findings and investigations helped influence this HHS decision.

Now, the jury is out for Morens. Not only did Morens serve as a senior adviser to former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, but he also worked closely with Daszak.

Emails show that Morens claimed he was a conduit between Fauci and Daszak.

In the indictment, Morens is listed as working with Co-Conspirator 1, who is generally presumed to be Daszak.

According to the indictment, behind the scenes, Morens worked with Daszak to restore a terminated federal grant and advise how to combat the theory that COVID-19 resulted from a lab leak.

To maintain the secrecy of their sensitive conversations, Morens used his own personal gmail account! He instructed Daszak to send all email replies to Morens’ personal email.

Morens’ personal gmail was used to disclose non-public information and evade or delay compliance with Freedom of Information Act requests.

Federal records that Morens created, transferred and exchanged on his personal email seemingly included those concerning my oversight work of NIH and its grants related to COVID-19.

The private email also helped Morens “back-channel” information to Senior NIAID Official 1.

Who is Senior NIAID Official 1?

It is generally assumed to be Dr. Fauci.

If you dig deeper, the emails are even more alarming.

In one, Morens asks Daszak:

“…do I get a kickback?? Too much [expletive] money. Do you deserve it all? Let’s discuss…”

Daszak responded:

“of course there’s a kickback.”

Were these comments in jest? Perhaps.

Let me be clear. Bribery is not a listed charge in the Morens indictment.

Or maybe, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is dangling this email in front of Morens to persuade him to testify against Senior NIAID Official 1, who is generally presumed to be Fauci.

I do not know.

What I do know is that concealing information from Congress is a crime.

Additionally, encouraging people to tell Congress that COVID-19 was from a wet market in Wuhan, even when it was likely that the virus’ origins traced back to WIV thanks to research funded by the American taxpayer, is unconscionable!

Again, everyone is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

While these texts and emails are damning, it is for a jury to decide if the indictments hold water.

But it is enough information to say the above headline was at least partly true.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office.  You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov/.

" 

Gentle Readers, the reason why you've not been seeing more of Congressman Griffith's E-Newsletters reposted here is that they come in the e-mail. I have a terrible time getting to anything in my e-mail, these days, that does not boil down to "Please buy my book" or "Please sell my book" or, in some cases, both. Too many people who should have stuck to their nine-to-five jobs decided to become writers during the COVID fiasco and most of them are still working on it. I remember years when I felt that leaving the city was keeping me from reading new books, and sigh.