The BulleTin • Thursday, May 27, 2021 A13
Biden asks intelligence officials
to investigate COVID-19 origin
BY ZEKE MILLER AND
AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Joe Biden on Wednes-
day asked U.S. intelligence
officials to “redouble” their
efforts to investigate the ori-
gins of the COVID-19 pan-
demic, including any possi-
bility the trail might lead to a
Chinese lab.
After months of minimiz-
ing that possibility as a fringe
theory, the Biden adminis-
tration is responding to both
U.S. and world pressure for
China to be more open about
the outbreak.
Biden asked U.S. intelli-
gence agencies to report back
on their findings within 90
days. He directed U.S. national
laboratories to assist with the
investigation and called on
China to cooperate with inter-
national probes into the ori-
gins of the pandemic.
Republicans, including
former President Donald
Trump, have promoted the
theory that the virus emerged
from a laboratory accident
rather than naturally through
human contact with an in-
fected animal.
Biden in a statement said
the majority of the intelligence
community had “coalesced”
around those two likely sce-
“The United States will also keep working with like-
minded partners around the world to press China
to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based
international investigation and to provide access to all
relevant data and evidence.”
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
— President Joe Biden
narios but “do not believe
there is sufficient information
to assess one to be more likely
than the other.” He revealed
that two agencies lean toward
the animal link and “one leans
more toward” the lab theory,
adding, “each with low or
moderate confidence.”
“The United States will
also keep working with like-
minded partners around the
world to press China to par-
ticipate in a full, transparent,
evidence-based international
investigation and to provide
access to all relevant data and
evidence,” said Biden.
White House press secre-
tary Jen Psaki said Tuesday
that the White House sup-
ports a new World Health
Organization investigation
in China, but she added that
an effective probe “would
require China finally step-
ping up and allowing access
needed to determine the or-
igins.”
A wolf pack is captured by a remote camera in Hells Canyon National
Recreation Area in northeast Oregon near the Idaho border in 2017.
Biden still held out the
possibility that a firm conclu-
sion may never be reached,
given the Chinese govern-
ment’s refusal to fully coop-
erate with international in-
vestigations.
“The failure to get our in-
spectors on the ground in
those early months will always
hamper any investigation into
the origin of COVID-19,” he
said.
Administration officials still
harbor strong doubts about
the lab leak theory. They view
China’s refusal to cooperate
in the investigation — partic-
ularly on something of such
magnitude — as emblematic
of other irresponsible actions
on the world stage.
Privately, administration
officials say the end result,
if ever known, won’t change
anything, but note China’s
stonewalling is now on display
for the world to see.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a White
House coronavirus adviser,
said Wednesday that he and
most others in the scientific
community “believe that the
most likely scenario is that
this was a natural occurrence,
but one knows that 100 per-
cent for sure.”
“And since there’s a lot of
concern, a lot of speculation
and since no one absolutely
knows that, I believe we do
need the kind of investigation
where there’s open transpar-
ency and all the information
that’s available, to be made
available, to scrutinize,” Fauci
said at a Senate hearing.
Andy Slavitt, Biden’s senior
adviser for the coronavirus,
said Tuesday that the world
needs to “get to the bottom ...
whatever the answer may be.”
“We need a completely
transparent process from
China; we need the WHO to
assist in that matter,”” Slavitt
said. “We don’t feel like we
have that now.”
New wolf killing laws
trigger push to revive
federal protections
Oregon Senate passes $9.3B school funding plan
BY HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
A $9.3 billion plan to fund
Oregon schools for the next
two years is headed to the
state House after the Senate
passed it on a bipartisan vote
with little debate Tuesday.
The state school fund bud-
get includes $300 million
more than necessary to main-
tain current level K-12 ser-
vices and programs, legislative
analysts said.
That proposed funding
level sparked controversy ear-
lier this month, when Gov.
Kate Brown sent a letter to
legislative leaders urging them
not to pump more money into
the state’s funding system in
which districts receive for-
mula-based distributions to
spend as they decide.
Advocates for educational
equity have been pushing for
the state to overhaul the fund-
ing system to target more in-
vestments to historically un-
derserved students, including
kids in poverty and students
of color.
Lawmakers have discussed
potential changes in pri-
vate meetings this session
but opted not to make any
gress after the species had re-
bounded from widespread ex-
termination last century.
The new laws had been op-
posed by some former wildlife
officials and reflect an increas-
ingly partisan approach to
predator management in state
houses that are dominated by
Republicans. Supporters of
restoring protections say the
changes will tip the scales and
drive down wolf numbers to
unsustainable levels, while also
threatening packs in nearby
states that have interconnected
populations.
They argue the changes vio-
lated the terms that allowed state
management of wolves, and
want Haaland to act before the
looser hunting rules start going
into effect in Idaho on July 1.
Wednesday’s petition seeks
to restore protections across
all or portions of at least six
states — Montana, Idaho, Wy-
oming, Eastern Washington,
Eastern Oregon and a small
area of northern Utah. It steps
up pressure on the administra-
tion over wolf populations that
were declared recovered when
President Joe Biden served as
vice president under former
President Barack Obama.
BY MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press
changes to Senate Bill 5514,
which the Senate approved
Tuesday.
If the House passes the $9.3
billion budget, this will be at
least the fourth biennium in
a row that the Legislature will
have approved a larger state
school fund than legislative
analysts said was necessary to
continue current services and
programs.
Wildlife advocates pressed
the Biden administration on
Wednesday to revive federal
protections for gray wolves
across the Northern Rockies
after Republican lawmakers in
Idaho and Montana made it
much easier to kill the predators.
The Center for Biological
Diversity, Humane Society and
Sierra Club filed a legal peti-
tion asking Interior Secretary
Deb Haaland to use her emer-
gency authority to return thou-
sands of wolves in the region to
protection under the Endan-
gered Species Act.
Republican lawmakers
pushed through legislation
in recent weeks that would
allow hunters and trappers
to kill unlimited numbers of
wolves in Idaho and Montana
using aggressive tactics such
as shooting them from ATVs
and helicopters, hunting with
night-vision scopes and setting
lethal snares that some con-
sider inhumane. Idaho’s law
also allows the state to hire pri-
vate contractors to kill wolves.
Wolves in the region lost
federal endangered protections
in 2011 under an act of Con-
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