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 dis-
putes, and establish policy recommendations in a fair, eq-
uitable, and transparent manner; 
Whereas the World Health Organization, an affiliated organi-
zation of the United Nations, develops policy rec-
ommendations that severely restrict, or de facto prohibit, 
interaction with legal private enterprise and thereby pro-
vides no recourse or opportunity for input to those im-
pacted entities; 
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Whereas, in 2016, the World Health Organization adopted 
the Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors, 
commonly known as FENSA, which, by design, effec-
tively 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 communica-
tion, engagement, or opportunity for partnership; 
Whereas the World Health Organization is actively pres-
suring the entire United Nations system, including the 
United Nations Secretary-General, International Labor 
Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, Eco-
nomic 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 rec-
ommendations 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 smok-
ers 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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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 Preven-
tion and Tobacco Control Act, the Food and Drug Ad-
ministration (FDA) follows an inclusive, transparent reg-
ulatory framework that promotes innovation in tobacco 
products based on a rigorous scientific evaluation, includ-
ing minimizing unintended use of such products by non-
smokers, 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 en-
gagement with or input from the tobacco sector and does 
not acknowledge the Food and Drug Administration’s re-
view and regulation of science, technology, and innovation 
that can potentially reduce the harms associated with cig-
arette 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives directs 
the Department of State and the Department of Health 
and Human Services to encourage the United Nations and 
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the World Health Organization, respectively, to adopt poli-
cies that recognize the rights of disparate parties and sci-
entific determinations of the Food and Drug Administra-
tion to advance technology and innovation that can reduce 
the burden of death and disease caused from cigarette 
smoking. 
Æ 
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