WATCH: Fauci says 'there's no way of guaranteeing' NIH money didn't go to gain-of-function research at Wuhan lab

In a senate hearing on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Sen. John Kennedy that he can't "guarantee" that American tax payer money didn't go to dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci told the Senate committee that he "doesn't have enough insight" to say whether or not Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology would have lied about where NIH funding was going or the origins of COVID-19.

He said that Chinese scientists are "trustworthy" and that he would expect that "they would abide by the conditions of the grant." Fauci said the NIH looks at the published studies from the Wuhan Institute of Virology to check what the institute was up to with the NIH funding.  

Kennedy also asked Fauci why he stopped the Trump administration's investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Fauci said that he had nothing to do with the investigation being "spiked" as Kennedy put it and that he had no knowledge of the inquiring. NIH director Dr. Francis Collins said he "read about it in the press" and was not consulted.

Congress is set to increase NIH's funding by 68 percent according to Sen. Rand Paul. Paul made a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday attacking the NIH for what he claims is wasteful spending. Paul said the NIH has spent tax payer dollars researching thing like $874,000 to see if Japanese quails are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine.