World Health Organization Accountability Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 296 To limit funding for the World Health Organization, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 8, 2021 Mr. SCOTT of Florida (for himself and Mr. HAWLEY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To limit funding for the World Health Organization, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World Health Organi- 4 zation Accountability Act of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDING. 6 Congress finds that, in response to the World Health 7 Organization’s denial that Taiwan ever alerted the organi- 8 zation to the possibility of human-to-human transmission 9 of COVID–19, the Central Epidemic Command Center 10 made the following statement on April 11, 2020: 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 296 IS ‘‘(1) The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control 1 (Taiwan CDC) learned from online sources that 2 there had been at least seven cases of atypical pneu- 3 monia in Wuhan, China. In China, the term ‘atypi- 4 cal pneumonia’ is commonly used to refer to SARS, 5 a disease transmitted between humans caused by 6 coronavirus. 7 ‘‘(2) Owing to its experience with the SARS 8 epidemic in 2003, Taiwan vigilantly kept track of in- 9 formation about the new outbreak. On December 31, 10 2019, Taiwan sent an email to the International 11 Health Regulations (IHR) focal point under the 12 World Health Organization (WHO), informing 13 WHO of its understanding of the disease and also 14 requesting further information from WHO. Given 15 the lack of clarity at the time, as well as the many 16 rumors that were circulating, Taiwan’s aim was to 17 ensure that all relevant parties remained alert, espe- 18 cially since the outbreak occurred just before the 19 Lunar New Year holiday, which typically sees tre- 20 mendous amounts of travel. To be prudent, in the 21 email we took pains to refer to atypical pneumonia, 22 and specifically noted that patients had been isolated 23 for treatment. Public health professionals could dis- 24 cern from this wording that there was a real possi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 296 IS bility of human-to-human transmission of the dis- 1 ease. However, because at the time there were as yet 2 no cases of the disease in Taiwan, we could not state 3 directly and conclusively that there had been human- 4 to-human transmission. 5 ‘‘(3) The Taiwan CDC also contacted the Chi- 6 nese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 7 a bid to obtain more information. However, in re- 8 sponse to our inquiries, the WHO IHR focal point 9 only responded with a short message stating that 10 Taiwan’s information had been forwarded to expert 11 colleagues; China provided only a press release. 12 ‘‘(4) Even though Taiwan strongly suspected 13 that human-to-human transmission of the disease 14 was already occurring at the time, we were unable 15 to gain confirmation through existing channels. 16 Therefore, on the day the aforementioned email was 17 sent to WHO, the Taiwan government activated en- 18 hanced border control and quarantine measures 19 based on the assumption that human-to-human 20 transmission was in fact occurring. These measures 21 included screening passengers on flights from 22 Wuhan prior to disembarkation. 23 ‘‘(5) In mid-January, the Taiwan CDC dis- 24 patched experts to Wuhan to gain a better under- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 296 IS standing of the epidemic, the control measures taken 1 there, and patients’ exposure history. Based on pre- 2 liminary research, Taiwan determined that this form 3 of pneumonia could indeed spread via human-to- 4 human transmission.’’. 5 SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 6 FUNDING. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—No funds may be provided as an 8 assessed or voluntary contribution to the World Health 9 Organization (WHO) until— 10 (1) the World Health Organization replaces all 11 of the top leadership of the organization that was in 12 place as of January 1, 2020, including the positions 13 set forth in subsection (b); and 14 (2) Taiwan is accepted as a Member State of 15 the World Health Organization. 16 (b) COVERED POSITIONS.—The positions referred to 17 in subsection (a)(1) are as follows: 18 (1) WHO Director-General. 19 (2) WHO Deputy Director-General. 20 (3) Chef de Cabinet. 21 (4) Executive Director for External Relations 22 and Governance. 23 (5) Executive Director, WHO Health Emer- 24 gencies Programme. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 296 IS (6) Chief Scientist. 1 (7) Senior Advisor to the Director-General, Or- 2 ganizational Change. 3 (8) Special Advisor to the Director-General. 4 (9) Assistant Director-General, Special Advisor 5 to the Director-General, Strategic Priorities. 6 (10) Assistant Director-General, Universal 7 Health Coverage/Healthier Populations. 8 (11) Assistant Director-General, Business Op- 9 erations. 10 (12) Assistant Director-General, WHO’s office 11 at the United Nations in New York. 12 (13) Assistant Director-General, Access to 13 Medicines and Health Products. 14 (14) Assistant Director-General, Universal 15 Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommu- 16 nicable Diseases. 17 (15) Assistant Director-General, Emergency 18 Preparedness and International Health Regulations. 19 (16) Assistant-Director General, Strategic Ini- 20 tiatives. 21 (17) Assistant Director-General, Emergency 22 Response. 23 (18) Director-General’s Envoy for Multilateral 24 Affairs. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 296 IS (19) Assistant Director-General, Antimicrobial 1 Resistance. 2 (20) Assistant Director-General, for Data, Ana- 3 lytics and Delivery. 4 (21) WHO Regional Director for Africa. 5 (22) WHO Regional Director for the Americas. 6 (23) WHO Regional Director for South-East 7 Asia. 8 (24) WHO Regional Director for Europe. 9 (25) WHO Regional Director for the Eastern 10 Mediterranean. 11 (26) WHO Regional Director for the Western 12 Pacific. 13 (c) LIMITATION.—No funds may be provided as a 14 United States assessed or voluntary contribution to the 15 World Health Organization in a fiscal year in excess of 16 the amount contributed by any other Member State of the 17 organization during such fiscal year. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS