China COVID–19 Restitution Act
Bill: H.R.4080 | Sponsor: Rep. Brooks, Mo (R-AL)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
China COVID-19 Restitution Act
This bill requires the President to impose duties on goods and components manufactured in China and to use the collected funds to provide compensation and reimbursement for losses related to COVID-19.
From this bill's enactment until December 31, 2021, the President must impose a 10% ad valorem duty on any good manufactured in China and any component manufactured in China and incorporated in a good imported from any country. This duty shall increase by an additional 10% each calendar year after 2021.
The amounts from this duty shall go into a trust fund, which shall also include any amounts provided by China's government to provide compensation and reimbursement related to COVID-19.
Using the amounts in the trust fund, the Department of Justice shall establish and administer a program to provide compensation and reimbursement for economic and financial losses related to COVID-19, including for assistance made available by the federal government.

To impose additional duties on imports of goods from the People's 
     Republic of China until China provides full compensation and 
 reimbursement relating to the COVID-19 pandemic to the United States, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``China COVID-19 Restitution Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) In April 2012, six miners assigned to clear bat guano 
        from the Mojiang coal mine in Mojiang, Yunnan, China fell ill 
        and 3 of them died. A team of scientists from the Wuhan 
        Institute of Virology were called in to take samples of bats 
        and found multiple new coronaviruses.
            (2) Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology did not 
        announce the existence of the new coronaviruses nor their 
        connections to the coal mine and the miners that became ill 
        until 2021.
            (3) Dr. Shi Zhengli, lead scientist at Wuhan Institute of 
        Virology, described experiments to World Health Organization 
        (WHO) scientists that could be described as gain of function 
        research. These experiments included manipulating certain spike 
        proteins from coronaviruses found in bats and making them 
        capable of infecting human cells.
            (4) The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been conducting 
        experiments on a coronavirus identified as RaTG13, which was 
        among the viruses found in the Mojiang mineshaft.
            (5) The Wuhan Institute of Virology has identified RaTG13 
        to be the most similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes 
        COVID-19 with a 96.2 percent similarity.
            (6) In November 2019 three scientists at the Wuhan 
        Institute of Virology became ill ``with symptoms consistent 
        with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness''. All 3 
        scientists sought treatment at a hospital.
            (7) A lab leak would not be unprecedented in China. In 
        2004, a SARS outbreak stemming from 2 scientists at the Chinese 
        Institute of Virology in Beijing infected 9 people and killed 
        one.
            (8) China refused to allow scientists to investigate the 
        potential origins of COVID-19 until January 2021, more than a 
        year after COVID-19 began its spread.
            (9) China only agreed to a WHO investigation if it had veto 
        power over the scientists chosen for the trip and privilege to 
        review and edit the final report before release. Thirty to 
        sixty members of the Chinese participants were not scientists.
            (10) China would not allow the international team access to 
        blood bank samples, raw data of any kind, lab logs, lab 
        biosafety requirements, or to interview staff members.
            (11) The WHO team was required to remain separate from 
        Chinese scientists unless in approved settings and were allowed 
        only 3 hours inside the Wuhan lab under strict conditions.
            (12) Chinese scientists examined the medical records of 
        76,000 people in a province of nearly 60 million people. Of 
        that 76,000, only 92 were chosen to be tested for COVID-19 
        antibodies long after they could have faded and without any 
        explanation to the WHO team of the criterion in which they were 
        chosen.
            (13) The COVID-19 pandemic, whether naturally occurring or 
        not, was made worse due to the lies and misinformation 
        promulgated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
            (14) On January 3, 2020, China's National Health Commission 
        ordered medical institutions and labs not to publish any 
        information about the new virus without specific government 
        approval. The notice also ordered labs to destroy their samples 
        or send them to other designated institutions.
            (15) Even after the CCP knowingly delayed notifying the 
        world of the COVID-19 virus and did not share the genome 
        sequence until January 11, 2020, the WHO repeatedly defended 
        them.
            (16) For weeks after various physicians in Wuhan warned of 
        the possibility of human-to-human transmission, China refused 
        to admit any such cases existed, as reported by the BBC.
            (17) Dr. Li Wenliang and eight other doctors warned of the 
        dangers of the new virus in December 2019.
            (18) In January 2020, the doctors were summoned by the 
        Public Security Bureau and silenced.
            (19) On January 14, 2020, the WHO tweeted ``preliminary 
        investigations conducted by China have found no clear evidence 
        of human-to-human transmission''.
            (20) On January 30, 2020, the WHO finally declares the 
        outbreak to be a global health emergency.
            (21) On February 24, 2020, following a 9-day field 
        excursion in China, a joint team of CCP and WHO scientists held 
        a news conference in which the WHO stated China's actions 
        slowed the spread of the epidemic and prevented or delayed 
        thousands of cases.
            (22) On February 28, 2020, the joint team praised China for 
        the ``remarkable speed'' of their response in isolating the 
        virus.
            (23) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director-
        general, visited China and praised the country's leadership for 
        ``setting a new standard for outbreak response''. Another month 
        and a half went by before the WHO called COVID-19 a pandemic, 
        at which point the virus had killed more than 4,000 people and 
        had infected 118,000 people across nearly every continent.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
People's Republic of China and the CCP are fully responsible and liable 
for all deaths, injuries, and financial losses suffered in the United 
States by reason of the spread of COVID-19.

SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF ADDITIONAL DUTIES ON IMPORTS OF GOODS AND 
              COMPONENTS FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

    (a) In General.--Subject to subsection (c), the President shall--
            (1) impose a duty on imports of any good from the People's 
        Republic of China, and any component manufactured in the 
        People's Republic of China that is incorporated in any good 
        imported from any other country, in an amount equal to 10 
        percent ad valorem of the good or component for the period 
        beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending 
        on December 31, 2021; and
            (2) increase the duty imposed under subsection (a) on such 
        good or component by an additional amount equal to 10 percent 
        ad valorem of the good or component for each calendar year 
        beginning after calendar year 2021.
    (b) Duties To Be Considered Additional Duties.--The duty required 
by subsection (a) with respect to a good or component is in addition to 
any other duty imposed by law with respect to the good or component.
    (c) Sunset.--The requirement to impose a duty with respect to a 
good or component under subsection (a) shall cease to be effective 
beginning on the date on which the President submits to Congress a 
certification that the total amount deposited in the COVID-19 
Restitution Trust Fund established under section 4 equals or exceeds 
the total amount necessary to provide full compensation and 
reimbursement relating to COVID-19 for purposes of the program 
established under section 5.

SEC. 4. TRUST FUND.

    (a) Establishment.--Not later than 30 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall establish an 
account, to be known as the ``COVID-19 Restitution Trust Fund'' (in 
this section referred to as the ``Trust Fund'').
    (b) Deposit of Amounts.--The Trust Fund shall consist of the 
following:
            (1) Amounts equal to the amounts of duties imposed on 
        imports of any good from the People's Republic of China, and 
        any component manufactured in the People's Republic of China 
        that is incorporated in any good imported from any other 
        country, under section 3.
            (2) Amounts provided by the People's Republic of China to 
        provide full compensation and reimbursement relating to COVID-
        19, if any.
    (c) Appropriation.--The amount of funds deposited in the Trust Fund 
is appropriated to the President and may be expended to provide full 
compensation and reimbursement relating to COVID-19 in accordance with 
the compensation program established under section 5. Such funds may 
not be used for any other purpose.

SEC. 5. COMPENSATION AND REIMBURSEMENT PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General, acting through a Special 
Master appointed by the Attorney General, shall--
            (1) establish and administer a program to provide 
        compensation and reimbursement with respect to--
                    (A) economic losses incurred in the United States 
                resulting from COVID-19;
                    (B) financial losses of each business in the United 
                States resulting from COVID-19;
                    (C) funds and other forms of assistance made 
                available by the Federal government to address COVID-
                19; and
                    (D) financial losses of each State and local 
                government resulting from COVID-19;
            (2) promulgate all procedural and substantive rules for the 
        administration of the program; and
            (3) employ and supervise hearing officers and other 
        administrative personnel to perform the duties of the Special 
        Master under the program.
    (b) Economic Loss Defined.--In this section, the term ``economic 
loss'' means any pecuniary loss resulting from harm, including the loss 
of earnings or other benefits related to employment, medical expense 
loss, replacement services loss, loss due to death, burial costs, and 
loss of business or employment opportunities.

SEC. 6. REPORT.

    Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress a report--
            (1) identifying countries the Secretary determines have 
        been adversely impacted by the Chinese Communist Party, 
        specifically related to the coverup, misstatements, and 
        obfuscation on the origin of COVID-19; and
            (2) describing measures the Secretary plans to take to 
        encourage other countries to adopt similar tariffs or other 
        retaliatory measures to collect damages from the People's 
        Republic of China.
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