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118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION

S.L.C.

S. ll

To require any convention, agreement, or other international instrument onpandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reached by the World
Health Assembly to be subject to Senate ratification.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
llllllllll
Mr. JOHNSON introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referredto the Committee on llllllllll

A BILLTo require any convention, agreement, or other international
instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, andresponse reached by the World Health Assembly to besubject to Senate ratification.
1Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
34SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No WHO Pandemic

5 Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act’’.
67SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

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2
1(1) On May 18, 2020, President Donald Trump

2sent a letter to World Health Organization (referred3to in this Act as ‘‘WHO’’) Director-General Tedros

4Adhanom Ghebreyesus (referred to in this Act as the5‘‘Director-General’’), announcing that—

6(A) United States contributions to WHO

7would be halted due its mismanagement of the8

COVID–19 outbreak and its lack of independ-

9

ence from the People’s Republic of China; and10(B) the United States would withdraw

11

from WHO if it did not commit to substantive

12

improvements within 30 days.

13(2) President Trump’s May 18 letter cited nu-

14

merous instances of WHO mismanagement of the15

COVID–19 pandemic, including—16(A) unjustified delays informing member

17

states about a potentially serious disease out-18

break in Wuhan, China; and19(B) repeated grossly inaccurate or mis-20

leading claims about the transmissibility of the21virus and about the Government of China’s

22

handling of the outbreak.

23(3) On June 30, 2020, Secretary of State Mike

24

Pompeo formally notified the United Nations of the25

United States decision to withdraw from WHO,

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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; 624Stat. 441).

5(4) A Pew Research Center survey conducted in

6April and May 2020 indicated that 51 percent of7

Americans felt that WHO had done a poor or fair8

job in managing the COVID–19 pandemic.

9(5) On January 20, 2021, President Joseph

10Biden sent United Nations Director-General António

11

Guterres a letter retracting the United States notice12of withdrawal from WHO.

13(6) On December 1, 2021, at the second special

14

session of the World Health Assembly (referred to in15

this Act as the ‘‘WHA’’) decided—16(A) to establish an intergovernmental ne-17

gotiating body (referred to in this section as the18‘‘INB’’) to draft and negotiate a WHO conven-19tion (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Conven-20tion’’), agreement, or other international instru-

21

ment on pandemic prevention, preparedness,

22and response, with a view to adoption under Ar-

23ticle 19 or any other provision of the WHO

24Constitution; andMDM23188 DHY

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1(B) that the INB shall submit a progress2

report to the Seventy-sixth WHA and a working

3

draft of the convention for consideration by the4Seventy-seventh WHA, which is scheduled to5take place beginning on March 18, 2024.

6(7) On February 24, March 14 and 15, and7

June 6 through 8 and 15 through 17, 2022, the8

INB held its inaugural meeting at which the Direc-

9

tor-General proposed the following 5 themes to guide10

the INB’s work in drafting the Convention:

11(A) Building national, regional, and global

12capacities based on a whole-of-government and13

whole-of-society approach.

14(B) Establishing global access and benefit

15

sharing for all pathogens, and determining a16global policy for the equitable production and17

distribution of countermeasures.

1819(C) Establishing robust systems and tools
for pandemic preparedness and response.

20(D) Establishing a long-term plan for sus-

21

tainable financing to ensure support for global

22

health threat management and response sys-

23tems.

24(E) Empowering WHO to fulfill its man-25

date as the directing and coordinating authority

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on international health work, including for pan-2

demic preparedness and response.

3(8) On July 18 through 22, 2022, the INB held4

its second meeting at which it agreed that the Con-5vention would be adopted under Article 19 of the6

WHO Constitution and legally binding on the par-7ties.

8(9) On December 5 through 7, 2022, the INB

9held its third meeting at which it accepted a concep-

10tual zero draft of the Convention and agreed to pre-11pare a zero draft for consideration at the INB’s next

12meeting.

13(10) In early January 2023, an initial draft of14

the Convention was sent to WHO member states in15

advance of its formal introduction at the fourth

16

meeting of the INB, which is scheduled for February

1727 through March 3, 2023. The draft includes broad18

and binding provisions, including rules governing

19

parties’ access to pathogen genomic sequences and20

how the products or benefits of such access are to21

be distributed.

22(11) Section 723.3 of title 11 of the Depart-

23

ment of State’s Foreign Affairs Manual states that24

when ‘‘determining whether any international agree-

25

ment should be brought into force as a treaty or as

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61an international agreement other than a treaty, the2utmost care is to be exercised to avoid any invasion

3or compromise of the constitutional powers of the4

President, the Senate, and the Congress as a whole’’

5and includes the following criteria to be considered

6

when determining whether an international agree-7

ment should take the form of a treaty or an execu-

8

tive agreement:

9(A) ‘‘The extent to which the agreement

10

involves commitments or risks affecting the na-

11tion as a whole’’.

1213(B) ‘‘Whether the agreement is intended toaffect state laws’’.

14(C) ‘‘Whether the agreement can be given

15

effect without the enactment of subsequent leg-16

islation by the Congress’’.

171819202122(D) ‘‘Past U.S. practice as to similaragreements’’.
(E) ‘‘The preference of the Congress as toa particular type of agreement’’.
(F) ‘‘The degree of formality desired foran agreement’’.

23(G) ‘‘The proposed duration of the agree-

24ment, the need for prompt conclusion of an

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71agreement, and the desirability of concluding a2routine or short-term agreement’’.

3456(H) ‘‘The general international practice asto similar agreements’’.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE SENATE.

It is the sense of the Senate that—

7(1) a significant segment of the American pub-

8lic is deeply skeptical of the World Health Organiza-

9tion, its leadership, and its independence from the10pernicious political influence of certain member

11states, including the People’s Republic of China;

12(2) the Senate strongly prefers that any agree-

13ment related to pandemic prevention, preparedness,

14and response adopted by the World Health Assembly

15

pursuant to the work of the INB be considered a16

treaty requiring the advice and consent of the Sen-17

ate, with two-thirds of Senators concurring;18(3) the scope of the agreement which the INB

19

has been tasked with drafting, as outlined by the Di-

20

rector-General, is so broad that any application of21

the factors referred to in section 2(11) will weigh22strongly in favor of it being considered a treaty; and23(4) given the level of public distrust, any rel-24evant new agreement by the World Health Assembly

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which cannot garner the two-thirds vote needed forMDM23188 DHYS.L.C.

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1Senate ratification should not be agreed to or imple-2

mented by the United States.

3SEC. 4. ANY WORLD HEALTH AGENCY CONVENTION OR

4

AGREEMENT OR OTHER INTERNATIONAL IN-

5

STRUMENT RESULTING FROM THE INTER-

6NATIONAL NEGOTIATING BODY’S FINAL RE-

7

PORT DEEMED TO BE A TREATY SUBJECT TO

8ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE.

9Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any con-10 vention, agreement, or other international instrument on
11 pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reached
12 by the World Health Assembly pursuant to the rec13 ommendations, report, or work of the International Nego14 tiating Body established by the second special session of
15 the World Health Assembly is deemed to be a treaty that
16 is subject to the requirements of article II, section 2,
17 clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which
18 requires the advice and consent of the Senate, with two19 thirds of Senators concurring.