Their inquiry is the latest effort from the group to make public health agencies turn over documents linked to the way pandemic policies have been arranged behind the scenes.
The email in question got widespread attention last month because Daszak, a key personality in research connected to the hypothesis that COVID-19 may have escaped from the Wuhan lab, thanked Fauci for downplaying the probability of a lab leak. It further got attention after being released to media outlets under the Freedom of Information Act because the administration redacted a portion of the email using an exemption reserved for data related to “pending law enforcement proceedings.”
Though, HHS officials this week sent the senators an unredacted version of the email, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, in response to one of two document requests the group had sent out weeks ahead — this one in pursuit of unredacted emails to and from Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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Sens. Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, James Lankford, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley addressed a letter Thursday to the Democratic chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Gary Peters, urging him to subpoena the Biden administration over documents that the agency has declined to produce.
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They cited a law that asks agencies to comply with records requests supported by five or more members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“This law requires federal agencies to produce documents when five members of this Committee request the information,” the senators wrote to Peters. "We, therefore, ask that you hold this administration accountable and show your support for Congress’ right to information by initiating proceedings to serve subpoenas to compel compliance with our lawful demands.”
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Beyond the Fauci emails, which they requested on June 11, the senators sought records about coordination between teachers' unions and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which they demanded on May 19. Documents published through the Freedom of Information Act earlier had suggested the leaders of teachers' unions had unusual influence over CDC recommendations for school reopenings.
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In their Thursday letter to Peters, the senators stressed that health agencies had, in response to both applications, handed over only documents that had already been published under the Freedom of Information Act, with the same redactions in place, the Washington Examiner reported.
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