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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World Health Organi5 zation Accountability Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDING. 

7 Congress finds that, in response to the World Health 

8 Organization’s denial that Taiwan ever alerted the organi9 zation to the possibility of human-to-human transmission 

10 of COVID–19, the Central Epidemic Command Center 

11 made the following statement on April 11, 2020: 


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1 ‘‘(1) The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control 

2 (Taiwan CDC) learned from online sources that 

3 there had been at least seven cases of atypical pneu4 monia in Wuhan, China. In China, the term ‘atypi5 cal pneumonia’ is commonly used to refer to SARS, 

6 a disease transmitted between humans caused by 

7 coronavirus. 

8 ‘‘(2) Owing to its experience with the SARS 

9 epidemic in 2003, Taiwan vigilantly kept track of in10 formation about the new outbreak. On December 31, 

11 2019, Taiwan sent an email to the International 

12 Health Regulations (IHR) focal point under the 

13 World Health Organization (WHO), informing 

14 WHO of its understanding of the disease and also 

15 requesting further information from WHO. Given 

16 the lack of clarity at the time, as well as the many 

17 rumors that were circulating, Taiwan’s aim was to 

18 ensure that all relevant parties remained alert, espe19 cially since the outbreak occurred just before the 

20 Lunar New Year holiday, which typically sees tre21 mendous amounts of travel. To be prudent, in the 

22 email we took pains to refer to atypical pneumonia, 

23 and specifically noted that patients had been isolated 

24 for treatment. Public health professionals could dis25 cern from this wording that there was a real possiVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296

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1 bility of human-to-human transmission of the dis2 ease. However, because at the time there were as yet 

3 no cases of the disease in Taiwan, we could not state 

4 directly and conclusively that there had been human5 to-human transmission. 

6 ‘‘(3) The Taiwan CDC also contacted the Chi7 nese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 

8 a bid to obtain more information. However, in re9 sponse to our inquiries, the WHO IHR focal point 

10 only responded with a short message stating that 

11 Taiwan’s information had been forwarded to expert 

12 colleagues; China provided only a press release. 

13 ‘‘(4) Even though Taiwan strongly suspected 

14 that human-to-human transmission of the disease 

15 was already occurring at the time, we were unable 

16 to gain confirmation through existing channels. 

17 Therefore, on the day the aforementioned email was 

18 sent to WHO, the Taiwan government activated en19 hanced border control and quarantine measures 

20 based on the assumption that human-to-human 

21 transmission was in fact occurring. These measures 

22 included screening passengers on flights from 

23 Wuhan prior to disembarkation. 

24 ‘‘(5) In mid-January, the Taiwan CDC dis25 patched experts to Wuhan to gain a better underVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S296.IS S296

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1 standing of the epidemic, the control measures taken 

2 there, and patients’ exposure history. Based on pre3 liminary research, Taiwan determined that this form 

4 of pneumonia could indeed spread via human-to5 human transmission.’’. 

6 SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 

7 FUNDING. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—No funds may be provided as an 

9 assessed or voluntary contribution to the World Health 

10 Organization (WHO) until— 

11 (1) the World Health Organization replaces all 

12 of the top leadership of the organization that was in 

13 place as of January 1, 2020, including the positions 

14 set forth in subsection (b); and 

15 (2) Taiwan is accepted as a Member State of 

16 the World Health Organization. 

17 (b) COVERED POSITIONS.—The positions referred to 

18 in subsection (a)(1) are as follows: 

19 (1) WHO Director-General. 

20 (2) WHO Deputy Director-General. 

21 (3) Chef de Cabinet. 

22 (4) Executive Director for External Relations 

23 and Governance. 

24 (5) Executive Director, WHO Health Emer25 gencies Programme. 


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1 (6) Chief Scientist. 

2 (7) Senior Advisor to the Director-General, Or3 ganizational Change. 

4 (8) Special Advisor to the Director-General. 

5 (9) Assistant Director-General, Special Advisor 

6 to the Director-General, Strategic Priorities. 

7 (10) Assistant Director-General, Universal 

8 Health Coverage/Healthier Populations. 

9 (11) Assistant Director-General, Business Op10 erations. 

11 (12) Assistant Director-General, WHO’s office 

12 at the United Nations in New York. 

13 (13) Assistant Director-General, Access to 

14 Medicines and Health Products. 

15 (14) Assistant Director-General, Universal 

16 Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommu17 nicable Diseases. 

18 (15) Assistant Director-General, Emergency 

19 Preparedness and International Health Regulations. 

20 (16) Assistant-Director General, Strategic Ini21 tiatives. 

22 (17) Assistant Director-General, Emergency 

23 Response. 

24 (18) Director-General’s Envoy for Multilateral 

25 Affairs. 


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1 (19) Assistant Director-General, Antimicrobial 

2 Resistance. 

3 (20) Assistant Director-General, for Data, Ana4 lytics and Delivery. 

5 (21) WHO Regional Director for Africa. 

6 (22) WHO Regional Director for the Americas. 

7 (23) WHO Regional Director for South-East 

8 Asia. 

9 (24) WHO Regional Director for Europe. 

10 (25) WHO Regional Director for the Eastern 

11 Mediterranean. 

12 (26) WHO Regional Director for the Western 

13 Pacific. 

14 (c) LIMITATION.—No funds may be provided as a 

15 United States assessed or voluntary contribution to the 

16 World Health Organization in a fiscal year in excess of 

17 the amount contributed by any other Member State of the 

18 organization during such fiscal year. 

Æ 


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