ILLEGAL BIO LAB IN LAS VEGAS

On 2026-02-02, Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA-3) delivered a floor speech titled "ILLEGAL BIO LAB IN LAS VEGAS" in the House. The speech addressed healthcare and also covered the economy, taxes.

ILLEGAL BIO LAB IN LAS VEGAS

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026)] [House] [Pages H1946-H1947] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ILLEGAL BIO LAB IN LAS VEGAS (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Kiley of California was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.) Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a serious national security issue that requires the immediate attention and immediate action from the United States Congress. An illegal bio lab was just raided in Las Vegas, and it is directly linked to the secret Chinese bio lab found in Reedley, California, in late 2022. That lab was oozing with E. coli, HIV, malaria, and other dangerous pathogens. The lab just raided in Vegas was operated by the same LLC and same Chinese nationals as the one discovered in Reedley. We know a lot about the one discovered in Reedley because I requested a report from the House of Representatives, an investigation which resulted in a report by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. I want to share some of the details of that report, but I will start with its conclusion: That no one knows whether there are other unknown bio labs because there is no monitoring system in place. {time} 2040 Those were the words of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party in 2023. We know there was at least one other such lab, but we still don't know how many others because the legislation, the bipartisan legislation, that I have proposed with Representatives Costa and Valadao has not yet been passed. Here is what we learned about this lab that was discovered in Reedley and that has now had a counterpart discovered in Las Vegas. It was run by an international fugitive from China named Jesse Zhu. After running various state-connected companies in China, Zhu moved to Canada where he set up dozens of corporations to steal valuable American intellectual property and unlawfully transfer it to China. The Supreme Court of British Columbia found that he committed fraud on an epic scale, resulting in a $330 million judgment. He then fled to America, assumed an alias, David He, and set up several more companies, including the one behind the Reedley biolab and now the Vegas biolab. He was indicted in 2023 and has been in Federal custody ever since, but his partner and other associates have not been. The Reedley lab was discovered in December of 2022 when a code inspector came upon a suspicious warehouse. Inside, she found many Chinese nationals wearing white lab coats, glasses, masks, and latex gloves, along with thousands of vials of biological substances and a thousand mice. It was later learned that these were transgenic mice genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus. A further inspection found blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples and serums, along with thousands of vials of suspected biological material. Some of the vials were labeled in the names of infectious agents while others were labeled in a code that was never deciphered. At first the CDC--this was during the Biden administration--refused to investigate and even hung up on local officials who asked for help. After Representative Costa got involved, the CDC did an inspection and found at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including HIV, tuberculosis, and the deadliest known form of malaria. Yet, the CDC did not bother to test any samples, even those with unknown contents, making it impossible for the select committee to fully assess the potential risks that this specific facility posed to the community. The select committee report calls this baffling. Later, local officials discovered a refrigerator in the lab labeled ``Ebola.'' While the supposed purpose of the lab was to sell test kits, in fact, all the company did was buy counterfeit kits from China and resell them in the United States. Thus, the committee found there was a lack of apparent legitimate or even profit-motivated criminal motive in the operation of the facility. Meanwhile, Jesse Zhu, its operator, was receiving unexplained payments via wire transfer from Chinese banks. As I mentioned, the report concluded that we don't know if there are any other unknown biolabs because there is no such monitoring system. That is why I am calling upon the House to act quickly to pass the bill that I have introduced, along with Representatives Costa and Valadao, to find any other such labs that exist across the country and assure that they are shut down. The Preventing Illegal Laboratories and Protecting Public Health Act would address gaps in Federal law outlined in this Congressional report. Specifically, it would require distributors of highly pathogenic agents to maintain federally reviewable logbooks of all transfers, including purchaser identity and intended use for at least 3 years. It would strengthen oversight by mandating Federal review of the number, location, and risks of high-containment labs with updated national standards for design, construction, and operation. It would protect against foreign threats by ensuring adversaries cannot exploit weak U.S. oversight to establish these secret labs. It would create a public health biosafety and biosecurity team as a single point of contact for State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments when suspicious labs are identified. It would require a feasibility study on creating a centralized national database of high-containment labs accessible to State and local officials for biosecurity purposes. As the city manager of Reedley, Nicole Zieba, said--who was centrally involved in trying to get the Federal and State authorities to take action here--she said: The Reedley incident highlighted a gap in the Nation's biosecurity. Any city around this country could have dozens of deadly pathogens stored next to sensitive locations and be completely unaware of it. She said that this proposed legislation puts us on a path to closing that critical gap that will help keep every American safe from the hazards like those that were discovered in the Reedley lab. Now, of course, we have seen alarmingly similar hazards discovered in the Vegas lab. I will be calling for a thorough investigation of what was discovered in Las Vegas, and I am calling upon the House of Representatives to move quickly to get this bipartisan bill passed so that it can then pass the Senate and be signed into law. Extent of Fraud in California Mr. KILEY of California. Mr. Speaker, people across the country are rightly outraged by the fraud that has been discovered in the State of Minnesota. However, for those of us in California, we have almost become desensitized to it. Every time there has been an independent audit, it seems, of any program in California, what is discovered is fraud on a scale that dwarfs anything that was discovered in Minnesota. We have already taken some action here in Congress to rein in the fraud that exists in California and to provide oversight and accountability that has [[Page H1947]] been sorely lacking. But what is needed is a comprehensive picture of just how large the scale of this fraud might be. That is why I am requesting that the Government Accountability Office conduct a study on the scale of fraud in California. I will read, for the record, my letter to Comptroller General Brown, Acting Comptroller General of the GAO, requesting this study. It says: One of Congress' most crucial duties is to steward public funds by assuring they are spent in accordance with the law and not siphoned off by criminals. Unfortunately, several high-profile incidents of fraud in recent years have shown the inability of some States to adequately protect public money. In particular, California has had difficulty stopping fraudsters who steal benefits destined for the most vulnerable among us. To gain a greater understanding of the impact this theft has on Californians and the Nation, I am asking that the GAO conduct a study on the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse California has fallen victim to. While fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in Minneapolis has recently garnered public attention, it still pales in comparison to the fraud perpetrated in California. During the COVID-19 pandemic, LexisNexis estimated State unemployment fraud reached $32.6 billion. Unemployed Californians had their benefits stolen, and taxpayers were taxed to fund criminals. The State's effort to aid the homeless is also riddled with waste and fraud. The State auditor examined spending on programs to reduce homelessness between 2019 and 2024. Despite $24 billion in spending, homelessness increased by 30,000 during that period, and no grant recipients provided metrics that demonstrated any sort of progress. This prevents the State government and the public from knowing how money is being spent and if specific programs are effective and worthy of continued funding. San Francisco nonprofit workers have been charged with theft of public funds intended for homeless seniors, and real estate executives in Los Angeles have been charged with stealing $50 million from a variety of homeless programs. Theft of public money is not just confined to nonprofits in California. Even an Orange County judge was convicted of mail fraud for stealing from a workers' compensation program. The letter concludes: Due to the widespread nature of theft involving public money in California, we urgently need more information to develop an effective antifraud strategy. To accomplish this, I ask the GAO to provide: 1, how much money in total was publicly reported as lost to waste, fraud, and abuse in California since 2016; 2, a breakdown of fraud by economic sector such as transportation, healthcare, housing, law enforcement; 3, who the perpetrators of fraud are; 4, what stolen funds are spent on; and, 5, u