WASHINGTON – Last week Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kansas), Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and August Pfluger (R-Texas) introduced the WHO is Accountable Act. This legislation blocks taxpayer funds from going to the World Health Organization (WHO) unless the organization adopts specific, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-related transparency measures, confirms it has stopped backing "woke" liberal initiatives and ensures that no U.S. State or Citizen can be legally bound by the policies in the new "Pandemic Treaty."
"Kansans are rightfully concerned about the influence and control of the World Health Organization, especially given their lack of transparency and cozy relationship with the Chinese Communist Party," said Rep. Estes. "While the WHO seeks greater investigative and emergency declaration powers, it is inappropriate for the U.S. to cede autonomy to this organization or continue its funding – the WHO is in need of serious reforms to regain any semblance of credibility and trust."
"I will fight any attempt to surrender our sovereignty and cede regulator power over the United States through a treaty, agreement, or arrangement negotiated by the Biden administration or any administration, I share my constituents' deep distrust of the World Health Organization as a result of their failure to effectively address the pandemic and their potential complicity with China's COVID cover-up," said Rep. Arrington.
"I join tens of thousands of my constituents in opposing any treaty the Biden administration intends to enter into with the World Health Organization (WHO)," said Rep. Pfluger. "The WHO completely botched its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and cannot be trusted to have the best interests of Americans in mind. We should defund the WHO as we know it, with its anti-freedom mandates, ties to the Chinese Communist Party — not enter into treaties with them."
The WHO, an arm of the United Nations, coordinates the global response to public health crises. Since its founding in 1946, WHO's funding has become increasingly tied to special interests whose corporate, often left-of-center agendas now drive WHO's decision-making. As we emerge from COVID-19, the agency is publishing new regulations that would fundamentally change the relationship between individuals, their country's governments, and the WHO. Additionally, WHO bureaucrats are drafting a "Pandemic Treaty," including specific examples of policies that may require changes within national legal systems, among them detention of individuals, restriction of travel, the forcing of health interventions (testing, inoculation) and a requirement to undergo medical examinations.
Specifically, this legislation prohibits the spending of American taxpayer dollars on membership in or funding for the WHO without the Secretary of State's confirmation that the WHO meets the following conditions:
- WHO isn't involved in a cover-up of the CCP's response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
- WHO isn't under the control or significant malign influence of the CCP;
- WHO puts in mechanisms to increase transparency and accountability in its operations to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse;
- WHO adopts meaningful reforms to ensure humanitarian assistance isn't politicized and provided to those with the most need;
- WHO grants observer status to Taiwan;
- No funds are diverted to corrupt regimes like Iran, North Korea and Syria;
- WHO has ceased all funding for and messaging with respect to "gender identity," "gender-affirming care," climate change and access to abortion services; and
- WHO has agreed that as a condition of membership by the U.S., no directive issued by the WHO shall be considered legally binding on any United States citizen or individual State.
