The House of Representatives has passed legislation designed to protect the United States from globalist dictates and pandemic-style lockdowns — legislation an expert says Christians “should be praying” passes the Democrat-controlled Senate.
On September 11, the House passed the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act (H.R. 1425), introduced by Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), by a near-party-line vote of 219-199. The legislation requires the Biden-Harris administration to submit any global pandemic agreement from the World Health Organization for Senate ratification before it could become law. All Republicans present voted for the bill, as did four Democrats: Reps. Don David of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and David Scott of Georgia.
“The subject of this bill by Tom Tiffany would require Senate ratification and treatment of the agreement with the WHO as a treaty, require oversight and proper advice and consent by the Senate, as any treaty would be given under a constitution,” said Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” the day after the bill’s passage.
The World Health Organization began adopting an agreement, which was initially referred to as a “treaty,” shortly after the COVID-19 global pandemic. Leaders changed the terminology from a treaty to the WHO Pandemic Agreement at the behest of the Biden-Harris administration once it realized it could not attain the votes necessary to pass a treaty, as required by the U.S. Constitution.
Previous versions of the agreement asked leaders to oppose the outbreak of an “‘infodemic,’” which the document defined as “too much information,” as well as “false or misleading information.” Such supposed disinformation “leads to mistrust in health authorities and undermines public health and social measures.” The agreement would threaten national sovereignty in numerous ways, even as the accompanying International Health Regulations (IHRs) passed by the WHO this spring tell global leaders they should begin “adjusting their domestic legislat[ion]” to implement WHO’s decrees.
The drafts would transfer 20% of all U.S. vaccines and therapeutics to WHO for global redistribution, implement a controversial “One Health” policy that equates human health with the health of animals and plant life, and demand that nations follow WHO regulations on “routine immunization” and “social measures” including lockdowns, mask mandates, and social distancing, among other unpopular features.
The global body intended to complete the text and submit it for ratification at the 77th World Health Assembly but failed to do so. Yet leaders continue to push forward for an agreement.
“We need to know what’s in it, and it’s still being drafted. Things are being hashed out,” Weber told Perkins. “This process is ongoing and the WHO is driving it towards the end of this year, possibly into next year. So, this piece of legislation moving into the Senate is an opportunity for the American people and their leaders to say, ‘We need to know what the United States government is being signed up for,’” Weber told Perkins.
When completed, the agreement likely presages even more restrictive global governance measures, said Weber. “I do think it’s fair to say it’s a precursor towards more aggressive action at the global level, coming down from global power institutions binding the U.S. and other countries to arrangements that they have no control over. They’ve given over control to the World Health Organization, whether it concerns health, a pandemic, or some other claim of interest by the global body,” he added.
Demanding that the administration submit the agreement to the American people’s duly-elected representatives for ratification — whatever its technical legal classification — “should be a no-brainer,” Weber argued.
Tiffany’s legislation enjoyed the support of numerous pro-life, pro-family, and pro-sovereignty organizations, including the Center for Family and Human Rights, Eagle Forum, Family Watch International, Heritage Action, Sovereignty Coalition, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, and Family Research Council — the parent organization of The Washington Stand.
Tiffany’s colleague, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), has introduced a companion bill (S. 444) in the Senate, which boasts every Senate Republican as a cosponsor.
Former President Donald Trump intended to exit the global governance body. The Trump administration began withholding U.S. funding from WHO in April 2020 and, that same July, formally notified the United Nations the U.S. would withdraw from WHO. Trump called WHO too “China-centric” to serve the rest of the world. Its leader, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, owed his post to the support of Chinese Communist Party officials and did little to push back on their opaque handling of COVID-19’s origins.
“There may be instances in the future when the United States wishes to participate in particular meetings of the WHO’s governing bodies and technical and advisory committees where we believe American interests need to be represented. We will consider those instances on a case-by-case basis,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Nerissa Cook at the time.
But the Biden-Harris administration canceled Trump’s orders and put the WHO Pandemic Agreement on the front burner.
“It’s deeply concerning that the Biden-Harris administration would even consider signing the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty. We cannot stand by as they attempt to surrender control of our public health system to unelected bureaucrats at the WHO and the UN. This legislation is essential to protecting our nation’s sovereignty and ensuring that the safety of American citizens remains in the hands of the U.S., not a corrupt international organization,” insisted Tiffany.
He and dozens of congressional Republicans signed a letter urging the Biden-Harris administration to withdraw from WHO in 2022. “In short, the WHO is not working in the interests of the American people — if it ever was,” wrote Tiffany. “We are committed to holding your administration accountable for wasting taxpayer dollars by continuing to fund this corrupt international bureaucracy.”
“I signed on to this letter because the World Health Organization has morphed well beyond its charter,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) in 2022. “It has lost its focus on world health and has become highly political. There are numerous examples, but I would put at the top of the list, the way they refused to stand up to the Chinese about COVID-19 and its origins.”
The WHO Pandemic Agreement is opposed by a wide variety of political figures. In January, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the WHO Pandemic Agreement “should be dead in the water.”
“This should be a bipartisan issue. No American should want to blindly, willingly, and really without due diligence, cede our sovereignty to a world governmental body like the WHO,” pointed out Weber, who reported from the World Health Assembly in Geneva for The Washington Stand. “We see a lot of developments in the direction of global concentration of power. … [The WHO Pandemic Agreement] takes things a step further in specificity integrating, linking, requiring and kind of locking in national governments to what they’re calling a pandemic preparation and pandemic treaty, but locking in national governments to a requirement globally to deal with health.”
“We should be praying that this passes the Senate,” said Weber.
Readers can take action against the WHO Pandemic Agreement here.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
