IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 896 

Reaffirming support of fundamental United States principles at the United 

Nations and encouraging the World Health Organization to embrace 

technological advancements in tobacco control. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 11, 2020 

Mr. RESCHENTHALER submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Reaffirming support of fundamental United States principles 

at the United Nations and encouraging the World Health 

Organization to embrace technological advancements in 

tobacco control. 

Whereas the United Nations was established in part as a 

global forum to convene disparate parties, resolve disputes, and establish policy recommendations in a fair, equitable, and transparent manner; 

Whereas the World Health Organization, an affiliated organization of the United Nations, develops policy recommendations that severely restrict, or de facto prohibit, 

interaction with legal private enterprise and thereby provides no recourse or opportunity for input to those impacted entities; 


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•HRES 896 IH 

Whereas, in 2016, the World Health Organization adopted 

the Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors, 

commonly known as FENSA, which, by design, effectively discourages interaction with the private sector; 

Whereas the World Health Organization is actively targeting 

major American industries, including agriculture, food 

and beverage, and pharmacology, with onerous global 

regulations, and the World Health Organization’s policies 

targeting the tobacco sector outright prohibit communication, engagement, or opportunity for partnership; 

Whereas the World Health Organization is actively pressuring the entire United Nations system, including the 

United Nations Secretary-General, International Labor 

Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, Economic and Social Council, World Bank, and International 

Monetary Fund, among others, to adopt similar policies 

with respect to the tobacco sector; 

Whereas the People’s Republic of China owns China National 

Tobacco Corporation, the largest tobacco company in the 

world, and this does not disqualify the People’s Republic 

of China from engaging in dialogue with and receiving 

funds from the World Health Organization; 

Whereas the World Health Organization’s tobacco policy recommendations fail to acknowledge that available science, 

technology, and innovation can accelerate the decline of 

cigarette smoking worldwide and reduce smoking-related 

death and disease; 

Whereas although the best health outcome for current smokers is to quit nicotine altogether, the reality is that less 

than 10 percent of adult smokers will successfully quit 

cigarettes in a given year; 


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•HRES 896 IH 

Whereas the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco control 

policy recognizes this reality and provides global health 

regulators a pathway forward to move adult smokers 

down the continuum of risk; 

Whereas pursuant to the bipartisan Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) follows an inclusive, transparent regulatory framework that promotes innovation in tobacco 

products based on a rigorous scientific evaluation, including minimizing unintended use of such products by nonsmokers, former smokers, and youth, where only those 

products determined to be ‘‘appropriate for the protection 

of public health’’ receive FDA authorization; 

Whereas the FDA regularly engages the private sector in an 

open and transparent manner regarding the development 

of such innovative products; 

Whereas the World Health Organization continues to cite an 

irreconcilable and inherent conflict to prohibit any engagement with or input from the tobacco sector and does 

not acknowledge the Food and Drug Administration’s review and regulation of science, technology, and innovation 

that can potentially reduce the harms associated with cigarette smoking; and 

Whereas policies based on the exclusion of any industry for 

which they seek to regulate do not advance sound health 

policy, and are antithetical to fundamental United States 

values of equal protection, free speech, due process, and 

the right to petition: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives directs 

2 the Department of State and the Department of Health 

3 and Human Services to encourage the United Nations and 


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•HRES 896 IH 

1 the World Health Organization, respectively, to adopt poli2 cies that recognize the rights of disparate parties and sci3 entific determinations of the Food and Drug Administra4 tion to advance technology and innovation that can reduce 

5 the burden of death and disease caused from cigarette 

6 smoking. 

Æ 


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