No Who Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DAVIDSON. 1425.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1425, Congressman Tom Tiffany's No World Health Organization Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act.
This bill ensures that the Biden-Harris administration does not circumvent Congress, and it requires that any international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response as agreed to by the World Health Assembly must be considered by the Senate as a treaty.
When it comes to imposing binding international obligations on Americans, the executive branch cannot go it alone. In our Constitution, in our republican system of government, the people's elected Representatives in Congress must give their approval.
An international treaty that cannot command the support of two-thirds of the Senate is not actually a treaty. While one administration may submit to it, it certainly does not bind our Nation or future administrations.
This proposed World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement is no exception. In fact, that potentially expansive agreement especially needs proper review and debate by the American people's elected Representatives.
Article 19 of the WHO Constitution states that such agreements must be submitted to each member state for review ``in accordance with its constitutional processes.'' Our constitutional process requires ratification by the Senate for something to be considered a treaty before it may come into force.
Likewise, during the World Health Assembly in May, the World Health Organization Director-General promised that any agreement ``will go to parliaments for consideration and ratification.'' We don't have a parliament. In our body, it would go to the Senate.
It isn't being sent there by the Biden-Harris administration. Why does the administration not want this to go to the Senate? That is an important question to ask. They certainly have not kept the drafting and negotiations transparent or accountable to the American people.
Now that negotiations are supposed to conclude by early 2025, there remains a distinct possibility that the World Health Assembly will try to call an emergency vote on a final draft treaty before a new U.S. administration takes office.
Far too little attention has been paid to what this treaty would mean for health policy in the United States and elsewhere. The latest draft is limitless in scope and contains overly broad language that can be read to support abortion and radical left ideology. It claims to impose undefined financial obligations. It grants more authority to the WHO, potentially infringing on our sovereignty. It threatens both intellectual property and free speech rights. It provides zero accountability for China.
The pandemic treaty would give more U.S. taxpayer dollars to the WHO bureaucrats to manage, even though the U.S. has already spent billions on pandemic preparedness. In total, the U.S. has spent around $2.2 billion toward global health security which, along with the Pandemic Fund donations, goes toward strengthening global health systems, supply chains, healthcare workforces, and international laboratories.
In addition, the International Health Regulations have been in place since 2005 as a mechanism to address infectious disease outbreaks around the world. They were just updated this past May to include a new financial mechanism. Why do we need yet another funding stream of U.S. dollars for pandemics?
What is also concerning is how the treaty is being used as a vehicle to promote and implement a radical left ideology. If this treaty were truly a model for promoting global health security, then the World Health Organization would keep it clean of divisive and controversial items, not just for Americans' interests but for interests around the world in keeping with the humanitarian principle of neutrality.
Americans remember and are still recovering from the devastations of COVID-19. Many lives and livelihoods were lost, and we can certainly and should prepare for future pandemics. However, Americans also remember the WHO's egregious mishandling of COVID-19. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros enabled the Chinese Communist Party's grand COVID-19 coverup in the winter of 2020 by parroting the Chinese Communist Party's lies such as that the virus did not spread via human-to-human transmission that contributed directly to death and disruption around the world.
Despite that colossal failure, the World Health Organization still has not addressed China's involvement in the pandemic's creation or spread and have not conducted internal reforms necessary to address its own role in the mismanagement of that pandemic. Instead, WHO is asking for more money, more authority, more legitimacy, and less accountability. The Biden-Harris administration is supporting their efforts to do so.
Thankfully, H.R. 1425 ensures that the American people, through their elected Senators, will have the opportunity to review any pandemic treaty, especially the sweeping grant of power and money to the World Health Organization.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany), the author of this very important bill.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, the ranking member highlights that the World Health Organization somehow gives a head nod to sovereignty. It is true that in their most recent public draft they mention sovereignty, but only to the extent that they agree that it is in their interest. So somehow they take a position where they are going to judge whether it really conforms or not. That should be alarming, and it should persuade my colleagues to not vote on party lines, but instead, to unite in support of this good bill.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Self), a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and a cosponsor of this bill.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the right to close.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, it seems that the ranking member feels confident that if this were exposed to the legislature of our own country that it would torpedo the agreement. That is what he said.
He also said, maybe in a different context, that if our voices are not heard, then America is weaker. Well, he joins a long line of members of his party who say things like: To protect our democracy, we have to avoid democratic processes. We can't allow the people's voice to be heard. We have to use the elite to protect everyone, people who know best. Frankly, if we can't just do it within the Biden-Harris administration, we should do it as partisan globalist institutions and not let it be subject to scrutiny.
In fact, maybe he is on to something. Secretary Blinken, when he testified before our committee last, said that he has remaining concerns.
We don't know that this is a final draft because the Secretary of State says that he has lingering concerns, and he is not sure before his term ends as Secretary of State that they can reach a final agreement.
He is not sure that he can.
Why?
It is because he has concerns about intellectual property infringements and things that would hurt the sovereignty of our own country. This subjects the agreement, frankly, to what article 19 of the WHO constitution says. It states that such agreements be submitted to each member state for review ``in accordance with its constitutional process.''
The World Health Assembly in May, the World Health Organization Director-General promised that any agreement ``will go to the parliaments for consideration and ratification.''
This administration wants to avoid that, and their proxies here in the House want to make sure they can get away with it. That is what this bill is about.
I, again, thank Mr. Tom Tiffany from Wisconsin for introducing this bill and Chairman McCaul for moving it through committee and to the floor.
What the other side is claiming is that Congress should not have any role in addressing a sweeping international health treaty that will affect the health, finances, and freedoms of American citizens, and I think it is dead wrong. This bill is the minimum due diligence that we owe the American people.
Mr. Chair, I urge support for H.R. 1425, and I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing.
Just a reminder to all of our colleagues following this vigorous debate that this bill is not about PEPFAR. This bill is about the administration's desire to enter into a treaty with the World Health Organization to surrender our sovereignty without following our constitutional process.
This bill would require the Senate to ratify a treaty. If it is going to have the binding force of law on future administrations, that is what our process requires in our Constitution, and frankly, it is what is acknowledged by the World Health Organization itself. It is what they are expecting of other countries, but somehow the Biden-Harris administration doesn't expect it of us and, sadly, their proxies don't either.
The other side mentioned in their debate that viruses don't recognize boundaries, that pandemics don't recognize borders, but the reality is the response does. We saw very different responses around the world, some pretty alarming and downright dystopian. If the World Health Organization chose to do that, America should sovereignly make its choice for our country, for how we react to it.
Of course, that is what is going to happen. Admittedly, some future administration might move in lockstep with the World Health Organization, but without the effect of a treaty, the United States certainly isn't obligated to, and perhaps that is a good thing.
Maybe it is a good thing that they are going to skip this. Maybe the administration will avoid it coming up in the Senate. Maybe the administration would veto it if we did get it over the finish line, but certainly, we should never surrender our sovereignty to the World Health Organization, in particular.
I thank Mr. Tiffany for introducing this bill and Chairman McCaul for moving it through our committee and to the floor.
Mr. Chair, I encourage all of our colleagues to support H.R. 1425, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Chair, I am a proud cosponsor of Rep. Tiffany's H.R. 1425, No WHO pandemic Treaty Without Senate Approval Act. H.R. 1425 would ensure that any international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response agreed to by the World Health Assembly is deemed a treaty and thereby sent to the Senate for ``Advice and Consent''.
In my 45 years in Congress, I have seen time and time again efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to expand authorities and ideologically colonize vulnerable countries using foreign assistance-- the majority of it funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Once again, but now in a manner that is most concerning to me-- through a treaty--they plan to exploit people's fears of the next pandemic in order to execute and bind Leftist ideological pursuits, disguised as supporting ``equity'', ``essential health services'', and the like, all the while trampling on U.S. sovereignty, threatening intellectual property rights and free speech, and promoting or funding abortion.
The approach to drafting this treaty has also been disturbing--the lack of transparency, the backroom negotiations, support for the WHO power grab, placing unknown financial obligations for U.S. taxpayers-- while benefitting China at the expense of the United States.
Can Americans even trust the World Health Organization? Has WHO earned back our trust after the devastating blow we experienced from their horrific mismanagement and coverup of PRC involvement of the COVID-19 pandemic?
No, they haven't.
We weren't even going to be given a chance to see the final negotiated text before the treaty's presentation at the World Health Assemby this past May. Luckily, the negotiators could not reach an agreement in time (but may do so before the end of this year).
From day one, we have been pressing the Biden Administration for transparency, to protect U.S. sovereignty from unelected WHO bureaucrats, and to commit to sending the proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty to the Senate for a real review before the U.S. government makes any agreement. This agreement is far too important to not receive a proper Congressional review and debate. Millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.
Will President Biden, make the treaty's final draft public so that taxpayers can review this treaty? So that civil society and the private sector can review it? So that U.S. Congress can review and debate it?
So far, our demands have not been heeded.
It is an absolute affront to our sovereignty to hand over critical health authorities to these unelected bureaucrats--with no accountability whatsoever--and empower them to dictate policies to U.S. medical professionals and U.S. taxpayers when it comes to vaccines, therapeutics, and the like.
Using potential pandemics as a pretext to violate the principles of good governance erodes trust and undermines international cooperation when it is most needed.
And we most certainly won't be signing a blank check. The American taxpayer should not be fleeced like this.
Binding international covenants, treaties, or agreements--and the legal obligations imposed on nations--requires serious and comprehensive analysis and must be sent to the Senate for ``Advice and Consent''.
I urge all members of Congress to do their duty and vote in favor of H.R. 1425.
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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. LaMalfa) having assumed the chair, Mr. McClintock, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1425) to require any convention, agreement, or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reached by the World Health Assembly to be subject to Senate ratification, had come to no resolution thereon.
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