During Tuesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TX) questioned Anne Wojcicki, Founder and Board Member of 23andMe, Inc., about her former investor with CCP ties.
00:00Chair now recognizes Mr. Burchett from Tennessee.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe you're from Kentucky, neighboring state.
00:08Ms. Wojcicki, did I get that right? Close?
00:12Very close.
00:13All right, well, nobody gets Burchett right, so don't feel like the Lone Ranger up here.
00:18Are you aware that in 2015, 23andMe received funds from a variety of investors, including Woozie Healthcare Ventures?
00:27I am aware of that.
00:30Okay, and according to 23andMe, this partnership has dissolved. Is that correct?
00:36That is correct.
00:38Do you know how much Woozie Healthcare Ventures invested in your company in 2015?
00:43They invested $10 million out of a $115 million round.
00:48Okay, are you aware that at that time, Woozie Healthcare Ventures had direct ties to the CCP and the Chinese People's Liberation Army?
00:56We were not aware.
00:57Can you explain how the partnership between Woozie Healthcare Ventures and 23andMe was dissolved?
01:05I believe that they sold their shares. It was just an investment.
01:11Well, investors, though, in a corporation do have votes on things that occur, though.
01:19They had no control.
01:20They just gave you all $10 million with no strings attached.
01:24There was no control.
01:26They just gave you all $10 million with no strings attached. That's a yes or no.
01:30They were just an investor. No strings.
01:32Okay. I have a bill, HR 2286. It's the American Genetic Privacy Act of 2025, and it was actually put forth last year.
01:45We're in your all's lobbyists do an excellent job, and this Congress, as Congress has in the past, have very little guts to do what I feel like is the right thing.
01:54Because it takes a great deal of trust for Americans to share their sensitive genetic information with DNA testing companies, and selling this information to companies with direct links to malicious foreign actors, I feel like, is a huge violation of trust.
02:09DNA testing companies must keep Americans' genetic information private so it isn't used against us by the Chinese Communist Party or any other nefarious characters.
02:20The bill that I put forth would prohibit commercial DNA testing services from disclosing this genetic information of the United States Nationals to the CCP or entities affiliated with it.
02:32If we had passed this, and it doesn't come through this committee, it's another committee, but if we had passed that, the questions would probably be a little different up here.
02:43I was made aware of a situation where supposedly the Chinese could say they collected this data that was sold to them on the market,
02:52and they could possibly create, and they could possibly create, they would do a genome, which I understand is a study of genetic information, and develop a pattern.
03:03And they could possibly develop diseases or something, a bug along that line, that could, say, stop American women at childbearing ages from bearing children.
03:16And this was discussed up here, yet we have not brought forth any legislation to stop that, and that was over a year ago under a previous administration.
03:27To me, that just shows the gutless nature of Congress and of us and our greed and the power of the K Street lobbyists.
03:36I would hope that this body and the media would bring attention to this problem.
03:41To me, this is a serious breach of ethics, but our national security, and it should go past parties and pointing fingers, we just need to get some legislation filed, and we need to enforce it.
03:54It's worthless when we pass these worthless bills, these so-called studies, and then what happens is we get a good piece of legislation.
04:05You've got a committee that goes forth with the legislation, you have a well-intended congressperson, yet a staff member, their ear is, the lobbyists have their ear, and they stop that legislation for whatever reason.
04:23They say, oh, we want you to do something, but we need to do a study.
04:27Well, folks, if you've ever seen the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, where at the end there's a warehouse full of this stuff, of things that we're supposed to be looking at, that is what I believe these studies go to.
04:40Is there some worthless warehouse, and we go home, and we tell everybody, look what we did, and we don't do a dadgum thing up here.
04:48We've got to get past the greed and the gutless nature of this thing.
04:51We need to take our dadgum country back, and both parties ought to be ashamed.
04:55Mr. Chairman, I yield back the remainder of my time.
04:58Mr. Chairman, I yield back the remainder of my time.