COVID’s ORIGIN MYSTERY ENERGIZES THE GOP — Republicans are increasingly agitating for the creation of an independent commission or congressional probe into the genesis of the pandemic , amid fresh bipartisan interest in the possibility the coronavirus escaped from a Wuhan virology lab, POLITICO’s Melanie Zanona and Andrew Desiderio report. Though some Republicans are already leading inquiries of their own, they’d need buy-in from the majority party to wield the subpoena power needed to get access to key documents and witnesses. The GOP is also prodding the White House over the issue, urging Biden in turn to pressure international organizations like the World Health Organization to help in the search for new information. It’s this political angle that’s both energizing the party and threatening to divide it. Some Republicans searching for an effective attack on Biden have seized on the questions surrounding Covid-19’s origins, using them to hammer Biden for being soft on China. “Everyone knows Biden and the Democrats will never stand up to China because they have too much invested there,” said Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, vowing to “hold China accountable and make them pay” if Republicans win back the House in 2022. Others have held off, believing they can still examine Covid on a bipartisan basis. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, declined to sign onto a recent letter demanding that Democrats open an investigation into Covid-19’s origin, in what some lawmakers saw as an effort to avoid politicizing the issue and jeopardizing possible bipartisan cooperation on her own probe into the virus. There’s also division within the GOP over how aggressively to go after administration officials like Anthony Fauci, who voiced his belief early on that the virus jumped naturally from animals to humans. Fauci has since acknowledged there’s also a possibility its spread resulted from a lab accident. Democrats, meanwhile, have remained noncommittal on the prospect of a wide-ranging review. But there are signs of restlessness: In recent weeks, the Senate has unanimously adopted measures calling on Biden to seek an international investigation and to declassify all the government’s information related to a potential coronavirus lab leak. RODGERS SEEKS GAO ASSESSMENT ON COVID ORIGINS — The top E&C Republican and two other GOP committee members are asking the Government Accountability Office to assess whether there’s any available technology that could be used to determine the source of the virus, the discovery of which they believe will help to prevent future pandemics.” The three Republicans — Rodgers and Reps. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Brett Guthrie of Kentucky — also want the GAO to determine whether there are any policy options that could speed up development of such technology. CMS STARTS REVIEWING GEORGIA’s OBAMACARE WAIVER — In one of her earliest actions since being confirmed, CMS chief Chiquita Brooks-LaSure sent a letter Thursday to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp seeking more analysis of Georgia’s plan to leave HealthCare.gov, POLITICO's Rachel Roubein reports. In the letter, Brooks-LaSure cited executive actions aimed at bolstering Obamacare as a reason to conduct a new analysis of the waivers, as well as the temporary expansion of the law’s health insurance subsidies as part of March’s stimulus package. Georgia will have a month to submit the new analysis of its waiver, which would opt the state out of a centralized website for Obamacare plans in 2023 in favor of letting agents, brokers and other private entities sell Affordable Care Act coverage, alongside skimpier options. The Trump administration approved Georgia’s waiver last November, saying at the time it would give residents more choice in the individual market. Democrats have since argued that it violates Obamacare and would hamper access to coverage.
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