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By Rep. Jerry Carl

Over the weekend, the mainstream media began reporting on what we’ve all known for a while: COVID-19 likely originated in a lab in China. For over two years, so many of us have been saying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) actively and purposely deceived the world about the origins of COVID since day one.

To make matters even worse, our own government officials lied to us about the origin and spread of COVID. In his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. (Anthony) Fauci repeatedly lied to the American people during his weekly COVID briefings. This became very clear in June of 2021 when more than 3,000 of Fauci’s emails were released to the public because of a Freedom of Information Act request, which showed Fauci’s public statements and private correspondence about the origins and spread of COVID completely contradicted themselves.

I’ve been demanding answers and accountability for these lies and cover ups since day one. One of the first actions I took was sending a letter to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to direct Congress to investigate Fauci’s lies. The next thing I did was introduce a bill to hold lying bureaucrats – Fauci, especially – accountable for knowingly and willingly lying to the American people.

I wrote about this early last year when I became increasingly concerned about unelected government officials who hold enormous power yet face very little accountability for their words and their actions. Prior to his retirement at the end of last year, Fauci was the highest paid employee in the federal government. His salary was even higher than the President of the United States, which is absurd. Even worse, his pension is expected to total more than $400,000 per year, which is still higher than the president’s salary.

I’m sick and tired of unelected bureaucrats lying to the American people and serving themselves while collecting massive paychecks. We’ve all known for almost two years where COVID started and how it spread, but bureaucrats like Fauci lied to us and the mainstream media called us conspiracy theorists.

That’s why I introduced the No Pension for Lying Bureaucrats Act, which would eliminate Fauci’s entire federal pension if he is found to have lied to the American people. Fauci lied about the origins of COVID, “15 days to stop the spread,” the effectiveness of masks, the effectiveness of vaccines and so much more. The last thing we should do is reward him with a massive pension for the rest of his life. It’s time to bring common sense and accountability back to Washington.