119-hr4207

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4207 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4207

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.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 June 26, 2025

 Mr. Tiffany (for himself, Mr. Wied, Mr. Moolenaar, Ms. Hageman, Mr. 
 Norman, Mr. Cloud, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Crane, Mr. Stauber, 
and Mr. Gosar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

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.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty 
Without Senate Approval Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress makes the following findings:

    (1) On May 18, 2020, President Donald Trump sent a letter 
 to World Health Organization (referred to in this Act as 
 ``WHO'') Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (referred 
 to in this Act as the ``Director-General''), announcing that--
        (A) United States contributions to WHO would be 
 halted due its mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak 
 and its lack of independence from the People's Republic 
 of China; and
        (B) the United States would withdraw from WHO if it 
 did not commit to substantive improvements within 30 
 days.

    (2) President Trump's May 18 letter cited numerous 
 instances of WHO mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, 
 including--
        (A) unjustified delays informing member states 
 about a potentially serious disease outbreak in Wuhan, 
 China; and
        (B) repeated grossly inaccurate or misleading 
 claims about the transmissibility of the virus and 
 about the Government of China's handling of the 
 outbreak.

    (3) On June 30, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 
 formally notified the United Nations of the United States 
 decision to withdraw from WHO, which would have taken effect on 
 July 6, 2021, under the terms of a joint resolution adopted by 
 Congress on June 14, 1948 (Public Law 80-643; 62 Stat. 441).

    (4) A Pew Research Center survey conducted in April and May 
 2020 indicated that 51 percent of Americans felt that WHO had 
 done a poor or fair job in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

    (5) On January 20, 2021, President Joseph Biden sent United 
 Nations Director-General Antonio Guterres a letter retracting 
 the United States notice of withdrawal from WHO.

    (6) On December 1, 2021, at the second special session of 
 the World Health Assembly (referred to in this Act as the 
 ``WHA'') decided--
        (A) to establish an intergovernmental negotiating 
 body (referred to in this section as the ``INB'') to 
 draft and negotiate a WHO convention (referred to in 
 this section as the ``Convention''), agreement, or 
 other international instrument on pandemic prevention, 
 preparedness, and response, with a view to adoption 
 under Article 19 or any other provision of the WHO 
 Constitution; and
        (B) that the INB shall submit a progress report to 
 the Seventy-sixth WHA and a working draft of the 
 convention for consideration by the Seventy-seventh 
 WHA.

    (7) On February 24, March 14 and 15, and June 6 through 8 
 and 15 through 17, 2022, the INB held its inaugural meeting at 
 which the Director-General proposed the following 5 themes to 
 guide the INB's work in drafting the Convention:
        (A) Building national, regional, and global 
 capacities based on a whole-of-government and whole-of-
 society approach.
        (B) Establishing global access and benefit sharing 
 for all pathogens, and determining a global policy for 
 the equitable production and distribution of 
 countermeasures.
            (C) Establishing robust systems and tools for 
 pandemic preparedness and response.
            (D) Establishing a long-term plan for sustainable 
 financing to ensure support for global health threat 
 management and response systems.
        (E) Empowering WHO to fulfill its mandate as the 
 directing and coordinating authority on international 
 health work, including for pandemic preparedness and 
 response.

    (8) The INB failed to negotiate an agreement on Convention 
 text and did not present a final draft of the Convention during 
 the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly held between May 27 
 and June 1, 2024.

    (9) On June 1, 2024, the World Health Assembly extended the 
 INB's Convention mandate until the Seventy-eighth World Health 
 Assembly in 2025.

    (10) On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump revoked 
 President Joseph Biden's January 25, 2021, retraction of the 
 United States notification of withdrawal from the WHO.

    (11) On May 20, 2025, during the 78th World Health 
 Assembly, WHO member states adopted the INB's draft of a WHO 
 Pandemic Agreement.

    (12) Section 723.3 of title 11 of the Department of State's 
 Foreign Affairs Manual states that when ``determining whether 
 any international agreement should be brought into force as a 
 treaty or as an international agreement other than a treaty, 
 the utmost care is to be exercised to avoid any invasion or 
 compromise of the constitutional powers of the President, the 
 Senate, and the Congress as a whole'' and includes the 
 following criteria to be considered when determining whether an 
 international agreement should take the form of a treaty or an 
 executive agreement:
        (A) ``The extent to which the agreement involves 
 commitments or risks affecting the nation as a whole''.
        (B) ``Whether the agreement is intended to affect 
 state laws''.
            (C) ``Whether the agreement can be given effect 
 without the enactment of subsequent legislation by the 
 Congress''.
            (D) ``Past U.S. practice as to similar 
 agreements''.
        (E) ``The preference of the Congress as to a 
 particular type of agreement''.
        (F) ``The degree of formality desired for an 
 agreement''.
        (G) ``The proposed duration of the agreement, the 
 need for prompt conclusion of an agreement, and the 
 desirability of concluding a routine or short-term 
 agreement''.
        (H) ``The general international practice as to 
 similar agreements''.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

 It is the sense of Congress that--

    (1) a significant segment of the American public is deeply 
 skeptical of the World Health Organization, its leadership, and 
 its independence from the pernicious political influence of 
 certain member states, including the People's Republic of 
 China;

    (2) Congress strongly prefers that any agreement related to 
 pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response adopted by the 
 World Health Assembly pursuant to the work of the INB be 
 considered a treaty requiring the advice and consent of the 
 Senate, with two-thirds of Senators concurring;

    (3) the scope of the agreement which the INB has been 
 tasked with drafting, as outlined by the Director-General, is 
 so broad that any application of the factors referred to in 
 

section 2

    (11) will weigh strongly in favor of it being 
 considered a treaty; and

    (4) given the level of public distrust, any relevant new 
 agreement by the World Health Assembly which cannot garner the 
 two-thirds vote needed for Senate approval should not be agreed 
 to or implemented by the United States.

SEC. 4. ANY WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY CONVENTION OR AGREEMENT OR OTHER 
 INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENT RESULTING FROM THE INTERNATIONAL 
 NEGOTIATING BODY'S FINAL REPORT DEEMED TO BE A TREATY 
 SUBJECT TO ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE.

 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any convention, 
agreement, or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, 
preparedness, and response reached by the World Health Assembly 
pursuant to the recommendations, report, or work of the International 
Negotiating Body established by the second special session of the World 
Health Assembly is deemed to be a treaty that is subject to the 
requirements of article II, 

section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution of 
the United States, which requires the advice and consent of the Senate, 
with two-thirds of Senators concurring.

SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

 It is the policy of the United States to unequivocally support 
Taiwan's full participation in the World Health Organization.
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