House lawmakers voted Wednesday to pass legislation giving the Senate the power to approve World Health Organization agreements, as the international organization continues negotiating a global pandemic treaty in the wake of Covid-19.
The House voted 219-199 to pass the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act, with four Democrats joining 215 Republicans to get the bill through. The legislation deems World Health Organization conventions or agreements to be treaties, which need senate supermajorities to be ratified. The bill now heads to the Democratic-controlled senate where it is unlikely to pass.
Representative Tom Tiffany (R., Wisc.) introduced the legislation to limit the World Health Organization’s influence after the body received strong criticism for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“It’s deeply concerning that the Biden-Harris administration would even consider signing the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty,” Tiffany said.
“We cannot stand by as they attempt to surrender control of our public health system to unelected bureaucrats at the WHO and the UN. This legislation is essential to protecting our nation’s sovereignty and ensuring that the safety of American citizens remains in the hands of the U.S., not a corrupt international organization.”
Many Republican lawmakers co-sponsored the bill, and Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wisc.) has introduced companion legislation in the senate. Conservative groups such as Heritage Action and the Family Research Council supported the legislation.
The World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty negotiations have gone on for more than two years as the 194 member states figure out how to better share resources, distribute vaccines, and respond to future outbreaks. Draft versions of the treaty feature sections on a range of issues from intellectual property rights to online “misinformation” and discrimination against women worldwide.
When Covid-19 broke out in Wuhan, China, more than four years ago, the World Health Organization ignored early warnings of the virus and allowed China to slow-walk its response to the disease, enabling the disease to spread across the world.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, received support from China during his election in 2017. China’s support paid dividends when Tedros spent the beginning of the pandemic praising China’s response and delaying a public-health emergency in early 2020. Later, China obstructed the organization’s investigation into whether Covid-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan.
Then-president Donald Trump announced in May 2020 that the U.S. would withdraw from the organization in 2020 over its handling of Covid-19 after he threatened to cut U.S. funding. The Biden administration rejoined the World Health Organization at the start of President Joe Biden’s term in January 2021, ensuring the body maintained its primary source of funding.