II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4343 

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 

MAY 26, 2022 

Mr. JOHNSON (for himself, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. BRAUN, Mr. COTTON, Mr. 

CRUZ, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. HOEVEN, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, 

Mr. LEE, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Mr. 

TUBERVILLE, Mr. DAINES, and Mr. TILLIS) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign 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. 

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 ‘‘No WHO Pandemic 

5 Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 


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

2 sent a letter to World Health Organization (referred 

3 to in this Act as ‘‘WHO’’) Director-General Tedros 

4 Adhanom Ghebreyesus (referred to in this Act as the 

5 ‘‘Director-General’’), announcing that— 

6 (A) United States contributions to WHO 

7 would be halted due its mismanagement of the 

8 COVID–19 outbreak and its lack of independ9 ence from the People’s Republic of China; and 

10 (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 nu14 merous instances of WHO mismanagement of the 

15 COVID–19 pandemic, including— 

16 (A) unjustified delays informing member 

17 states about a potentially serious disease out18 break in Wuhan, China; and 

19 (B) repeated grossly inaccurate or mis20 leading claims about the transmissibility of the 

21 virus 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 the 

25 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; 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 

17 negotiating body . . . (the ‘INB’) to draft and 

18 negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or 

19 other international instrument on pandemic 

20 prevention, preparedness and response, with a 

21 view to adoption under Article 19, or under 

22 other provisions of the WHO Constitution . . . 

23 .’’; and 

24 (B) that the INB shall submit a progress 

25 report to the Seventy-sixth WHA and a working 


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1 draft of the convention for consideration by the 

2 Seventy-seventh WHA, which is scheduled to 

3 take place beginning on March 18, 2024. 

4 (7) On February 24 and March 14 and 15, 

5 2022, the INB held its inaugural meeting at which 

6 the Director-General proposed the following 5 

7 themes to guide the INB’s work in drafting the Con8 vention: 

9 (A) Building national, regional, and global 

10 capacities based on a whole-of-government and 

11 whole-of-society approach. 

12 (B) Establishing global access and benefit 

13 sharing for all pathogens, and determining a 

14 global policy for the equitable production and 

15 distribution of countermeasures. 

16 (C) Establishing robust systems and tools 

17 for pandemic preparedness and response. 

18 (D) Establishing a long-term plan for sus19 tainable financing to ensure support for global 

20 health threat management and response sys21 tems. 

22 (E) Empowering WHO to fulfill its man23 date as the directing and coordinating authority 

24 on international health work, including for pan25 demic preparedness and response. 


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1 (8) Section 723.3 of title 11 of the Department 

2 of State’s Foreign Affairs Manual states that when 

3 ‘‘determining whether any international agreement 

4 should be brought into force as a treaty or as an 

5 international agreement other than a treaty, the ut6 most care is to be exercised to avoid any invasion or 

7 compromise of the constitutional powers of the 

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

9 and includes the following criteria to be considered 

10 when determining whether an international agree11 ment should take the form of a treaty or an execu12 tive agreement: 

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

14 involves commitments or risks affecting the na15 tion as a whole’’. 

16 (B) ‘‘Whether the agreement is intended to 

17 affect state laws’’. 

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

19 effect without the enactment of subsequent leg20 islation by the Congress’’. 

21 (D) ‘‘Past U.S. practice as to similar 

22 agreements’’. 

23 (E) ‘‘The preference of the Congress as to 

24 a particular type of agreement’’. 


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1 (F) ‘‘The degree of formality desired for 

2 an agreement’’. 

3 (G) ‘‘The proposed duration of the agree4 ment, the need for prompt conclusion of an 

5 agreement, and the desirability of concluding a 

6 routine or short-term agreement’’. 

7 (H) ‘‘The general international practice as 

8 to similar agreements’’. 

9 SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE SENATE. 

10 It is the sense of the Senate that— 

11 (1) a significant segment of the American pub12 lic is deeply skeptical of the World Health Organiza13 tion, its leadership, and its independence from the 

14 pernicious political influence of certain member 

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

16 (2) the Senate strongly prefers that any agree17 ment related to pandemic prevention, preparedness, 

18 and response adopted by the World Health Assembly 

19 pursuant to the work of the INB be considered a 

20 treaty requiring the advice and consent of the Sen21 ate, with two-thirds of Senators concurring; 

22 (3) the scope of the agreement which the INB 

23 has been tasked with drafting, as outlined by the Di24 rector-General, is so broad that any application of 


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1 the factors referred to in section 2(8) will weigh 

2 strongly in favor of it being considered a treaty; and 

3 (4) given the level of public distrust, any rel4 evant new agreement by the World Health Assembly 

5 which cannot garner the two-thirds vote needed for 

6 Senate ratification should not be agreed to or imple7 mented by the United States. 

8 SEC. 4. ANY WORLD HEALTH AGENCY CONVENTION OR 

9 AGREEMENT OR OTHER INTERNATIONAL IN10 STRUMENT RESULTING FROM THE INTER11 NATIONAL NEGOTIATING BODY’S FINAL RE12 PORT DEEMED TO BE A TREATY SUBJECT TO 

13 ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE. 

14 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any con15 vention, agreement, or other international instrument on 

16 pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reached 

17 by the World Health Assembly pursuant to the rec18 ommendations, report, or work of the International Nego19 tiating Body established by the second special session of 

20 the World Health Assembly is deemed to be a treaty that 

21 is subject to the requirements of article II, section 2, 

22 clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which 

23 requires the advice and consent of the Senate, with two24 thirds of Senators concurring. 

Æ 


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