GOPers want Pentagon probe into over $50M spent on China pandemic research labs

Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Mike Gallagher are demanding the Defense Department's inspector general probe more than $50 million in defense grants to Chinese pandemic research institutions — including those based in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 emerged in 2019. "A comprehensive review of these matters is crucial for identifying potential national security threats that could result either from Pentagon procurement of technology from Chinese companies or dangerous experiments being conducted in foreign laboratories with substandard safety conditions," Ernst (R-Iowa) and Gallagher (R-Wis.) wrote in a Thursday letter to Pentagon watchdog Robert Storch. The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which…