Bill Would Let People Sue Chinese Communist Party For Its COVID-19 Misrepresentation

From The Desk Of Congressman Chris Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th), Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, reintroduced legislation with Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX) to allow US citizens the right to sue the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and hold the regime accountable for its largescale misrepresentation campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Knowing that Xi Jinping and his Communist regime systematically failed to be truthful and transparent, our legislation seeks to not only gain access to more information but also provide much-needed relief to the loved ones of those who died and others who have suffered severe economic loss during the pandemic,” said Smith, who has chaired over 80 congressional hearings on the CCP’s egregious human rights abuses.

“The Chinese Communist Party refusal to provide real time information killed Americans,” said Burgess. “The American people lost loved ones and suffered a multitude of losses during the Coronavirus pandemic. They deserve the ability to get answers from the CCP.”

“We must finally get to the truth about what happened and who was involved in this deception in order to bring justice to those who suffered profoundly from COVID-19,” Smith said.

The Smith-Burgess bill would waive the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and allow United States citizens the right to sue the Chinese government for monetary damages, personal injury, death, or damage to or loss of property occurring in the U.S. as a result of the CCP’s willful or grossly negligent misrepresentation of information to the World Health Organization (WHO). It would also apply to other countries that provide misinformation to the WHO about the nature, seriousness or communicability of an infectious disease.

“Besides damages paid to those individuals who have endured so much pain and loss, our bill can bring discovery and the opportunity in court to ask probing questions that will hopefully lead to answers and help prevent this type of behavior in the future,” Smith said.

Last Congress, similar legislation authored by Smith - which he first introduced in April 2020 - was blocked on a party-line vote by the Democrat-controlled Foreign Affairs Committee, marking the historic first recorded vote in the House of Representatives on the right to sue China for its lack of transparency over the COVID pandemic.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said

Smith, who noted some of the deleterious consequences resulting from the CCP’s failure to be transparent about the COVID-19 crisis, including the enormous loss of life with close to 36,000 deaths in his home state of New Jersey; over 1.1 million across the country; and at least 6.8 million throughout the entire world.

The Smith-Burgess bill shares a parallel track with the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorist Act (JASTA) - legislation enacted by Congress in 2016 over the veto of President Obama allowing the families of 9/11 victims to seek justice against Saudi Arabia for aiding and abetting the terrorists involved in the horrific attacks.

For The Board Of School Estimate Of The Ocean County Vocational School District

Notice

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that the meeting of the Board of School Estimate of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School District is scheduled for Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 3:15 p.m., in the Ocean County Administration Building, 101 Hooper Avenue, Room 304, Toms River, New Jersey, for the purpose of reviewing and approving the proposed budget for the Ocean County Vocational Technical School District for the 2023-2024 school year.

Formal action will be taken at this meeting.

Frank J. Frazee, CPA Secretary, Board of School Estimate