What This Bill Does
This bill requires the Senate to approve any agreement about pandemic prevention and response created by the World Health Assembly. It states that any such agreement must be treated as a treaty, which needs approval from two-thirds of the Senate before the United States can follow it.
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Who It Affects
The bill directly affects the Senate, the President, and the World Health Organization. It impacts how the United States government can enter into international health agreements.
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Key Provisions
• Any convention, agreement or international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response reached by the World Health Assembly through the work of the International Negotiating Body is considered a treaty that requires Senate approval with two-thirds of Senators voting in favor. (Sec. 4)
• The Senate expresses its strong preference that any agreement related to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response adopted by the World Health Assembly be treated as a treaty requiring Senate advice and consent, with two-thirds of Senators concurring. (Sec. 3)
• The Senate states that any new agreement by the World Health Assembly that cannot receive the two-thirds vote needed for Senate ratification should not be agreed to or implemented by the United States. (Sec. 3)
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What Changes
If this bill becomes law, any World Health Assembly pandemic agreement resulting from the International Negotiating Body's work automatically becomes a treaty requiring a two-thirds Senate vote to approve, rather than being treated as an executive agreement.
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Important Definitions
The bill defines WHO as the World Health Organization and Director-General as the head of WHO.
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II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 444
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 15, 2023
Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. BRAUN,
Mrs. BRITT, Mr. COTTON, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. DAINES, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr.
HAGERTY, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. LEE, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. RUBIO, Mr.
SCOTT of Florida, Mr. TILLIS, and Mr. TUBERVILLE) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on For-
eign Relations
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 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 ‘‘No WHO Pandemic
4
Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act’’.
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
1
Congress makes the following findings:
2
(1) On May 18, 2020, President Donald Trump
3
sent a letter to World Health Organization (referred
4
to in this Act as ‘‘WHO’’) Director-General Tedros
5
Adhanom Ghebreyesus (referred to in this Act as the
6
‘‘Director-General’’), announcing that—
7
(A) United States contributions to WHO
8
would be halted due its mismanagement of the
9
COVID–19 outbreak and its lack of independ-
10
ence from the People’s Republic of China; and
11
(B) the United States would withdraw
12
from WHO if it did not commit to substantive
13
improvements within 30 days.
14
(2) President Trump’s May 18 letter cited nu-
15
merous instances of WHO mismanagement of the
16
COVID–19 pandemic, including—
17
(A) unjustified delays informing member
18
states about a potentially serious disease out-
19
break in Wuhan, China; and
20
(B) repeated grossly inaccurate or mis-
21
leading claims about the transmissibility of the
22
virus and about the Government of China’s
23
handling of the outbreak.
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(3) On June 30, 2020, Secretary of State Mike
25
Pompeo formally notified the United Nations of the
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United States decision to withdraw from WHO,
1
which would have taken effect on July 6, 2021,
2
under the terms of a joint resolution adopted by
3
Congress on June 14, 1948 (Public Law 80–643; 62
4
Stat. 441).
5
(4) A Pew Research Center survey conducted in
6
April and May 2020 indicated that 51 percent of
7
Americans felt that WHO had done a poor or fair
8
job in managing the COVID–19 pandemic.
9
(5) On January 20, 2021, President Joseph
10
Biden sent United Nations Director-General Anto´nio
11
Guterres a letter retracting the United States notice
12
of withdrawal from WHO.
13
(6) On December 1, 2021, at the second special
14
session of the World Health Assembly (referred to in
15
this Act as the ‘‘WHA’’) decided—
16
(A) to establish an intergovernmental ne-
17
gotiating body (referred to in this section as the
18
‘‘INB’’) to draft and negotiate a WHO conven-
19
tion (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Conven-
20
tion’’), agreement, or other international instru-
21
ment on pandemic prevention, preparedness,
22
and response, with a view to adoption under ar-
23
ticle 19 or any other provision of the WHO
24
Constitution; and
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•S 444 IS
(B) that the INB shall submit a progress
1
report to the Seventy-sixth WHA and a working
2
draft of the convention for consideration by the
3
Seventy-seventh WHA, which is scheduled to
4
take place beginning on March 18, 2024.
5
(7) On February 24, March 14 and 15, and
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June 6 through 8 and 15 through 17, 2022, the
7
INB held its inaugural meeting at which the Direc-
8
tor-General proposed the following 5 themes to guide
9
the INB’s work in drafting the Convention:
10
(A) Building national, regional, and global
11
capacities based on a whole-of-government and
12
whole-of-society approach.
13
(B) Establishing global access and benefit
14
sharing for all pathogens, and determining a
15
global policy for the equitable production and
16
distribution of countermeasures.
17
(C) Establishing robust systems and tools
18
for pandemic preparedness and response.
19
(D) Establishing a long-term plan for sus-
20
tainable financing to ensure support for global
21
health threat management and response sys-
22
tems.
23
(E) Empowering WHO to fulfill its man-
24
date as the directing and coordinating authority
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•S 444 IS
on international health work, including for pan-
1
demic preparedness and response.
2
(8) On July 18 through 22, 2022, the INB held
3
its second meeting at which it agreed that the Con-
4
vention would be adopted under article 19 of the
5
WHO Constitution and legally binding on the par-
6
ties.
7
(9) On December 5 through 7, 2022, the INB
8
held its third meeting at which it accepted a concep-
9
tual zero draft of the Convention and agreed to pre-
10
pare a zero draft for consideration at the INB’s next
11
meeting.
12
(10) In early January 2023, an initial draft of
13
the Convention was sent to WHO member states in
14
advance of its formal introduction at the fourth
15
meeting of the INB, which is scheduled for February
16
27 through March 3, 2023. The draft includes broad
17
and binding provisions, including rules governing
18
parties’ access to pathogen genomic sequences and
19
how the products or benefits of such access are to
20
be distributed.
21
(11) Section 723.3 of title 11 of the Depart-
22
ment of State’s Foreign Affairs Manual states that
23
when ‘‘determining whether any international agree-
24
ment should be brought into force as a treaty or as
25
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•S 444 IS
an international agreement other than a treaty, the
1
utmost care is to be exercised to avoid any invasion
2
or compromise of the constitutional powers of the
3
President, the Senate, and the Congress as a whole’’
4
and includes the following criteria to be considered
5
when determining whether an international agree-
6
ment should take the form of a treaty or an execu-
7
tive agreement:
8
(A) ‘‘The extent to which the agreement
9
involves commitments or risks affecting the na-
10
tion as a whole’’.
11
(B) ‘‘Whether the agreement is intended to
12
affect state laws’’.
13
(C) ‘‘Whether the agreement can be given
14
effect without the enactment of subsequent leg-
15
islation by the Congress’’.
16
(D) ‘‘Past U.S. practice as to similar
17
agreements’’.
18
(E) ‘‘The preference of the Congress as to
19
a particular type of agreement’’.
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(F) ‘‘The degree of formality desired for
21
an agreement’’.
22
(G) ‘‘The proposed duration of the agree-
23
ment, the need for prompt conclusion of an
24
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•S 444 IS
agreement, and the desirability of concluding a
1
routine or short-term agreement’’.
2
(H) ‘‘The general international practice as
3
to similar agreements’’.
4
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE SENATE.
5
It is the sense of the Senate that—
6
(1) a significant segment of the American pub-
7
lic is deeply skeptical of the World Health Organiza-
8
tion, its leadership, and its independence from the
9
pernicious political influence of certain member
10
states, including the People’s Republic of China;
11
(2) the Senate strongly prefers that any agree-
12
ment related to pandemic prevention, preparedness,
13
and response adopted by the World Health Assembly
14
pursuant to the work of the INB be considered a
15
treaty requiring the advice and consent of the Sen-
16
ate, with two-thirds of Senators concurring;
17
(3) the scope of the agreement which the INB
18
has been tasked with drafting, as outlined by the Di-
19
rector-General, is so broad that any application of
20
the factors referred to in section 2(11) will weigh
21
strongly in favor of it being considered a treaty; and
22
(4) given the level of public distrust, any rel-
23
evant new agreement by the World Health Assembly
24
which cannot garner the two-thirds vote needed for
25
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•S 444 IS
Senate ratification should not be agreed to or imple-
1
mented by the United States.
2
SEC. 4. ANY WORLD HEALTH AGENCY CONVENTION OR
3
AGREEMENT OR OTHER INTERNATIONAL IN-
4
STRUMENT RESULTING FROM THE INTER-
5
NATIONAL NEGOTIATING BODY’S FINAL RE-
6
PORT DEEMED TO BE A TREATY SUBJECT TO
7
ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE.
8
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any con-
9
vention, agreement, or other international instrument on
10
pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reached
11
by the World Health Assembly pursuant to the rec-
12
ommendations, report, or work of the International Nego-
13
tiating Body established by the second special session of
14
the World Health Assembly is deemed to be a treaty that
15
is subject to the requirements of article II, section 2,
16
clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which
17
requires the advice and consent of the Senate, with two-
18
thirds of Senators concurring.
19
Æ
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