Title: World Health Organization Accountability Act of 2021
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
World Health Organization Accountability Act of 2021

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 296 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``World Health Organization 
Accountability Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDING.

    Congress finds that, in response to the World Health Organization's 
denial that Taiwan ever alerted the organization to the possibility of 
human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command 
Center made the following statement on April 11, 2020:
            ``(1) The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) 
        learned from online sources that there had been at least seven 
        cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, China. In China, the term 
        `atypical pneumonia' is commonly used to refer to SARS, a 
        disease transmitted between humans caused by coronavirus.
            ``(2) Owing to its experience with the SARS epidemic in 
        2003, Taiwan vigilantly kept track of information about the new 
        outbreak. On December 31, 2019, Taiwan sent an email to the 
        International Health Regulations (IHR) focal point under the 
        World Health Organization (WHO), informing WHO of its 
        understanding of the disease and also requesting further 
        information from WHO. Given the lack of clarity at the time, as 
        well as the many rumors that were circulating, Taiwan's aim was 
        to ensure that all relevant parties remained alert, especially 
        since the outbreak occurred just before the Lunar New Year 
        holiday, which typically sees tremendous amounts of travel. To 
        be prudent, in the email we took pains to refer to atypical 
        pneumonia, and specifically noted that patients had been 
        isolated for treatment. Public health professionals could 
        discern from this wording that there was a real possibility of 
        human-to-human transmission of the disease. However, because at 
        the time there were as yet no cases of the disease in Taiwan, 
        we could not state directly and conclusively that there had 
        been human-to-human transmission.
            ``(3) The Taiwan CDC also contacted the Chinese Center for 
        Disease Control and Prevention in a bid to obtain more 
        information. However, in response to our inquiries, the WHO IHR 
        focal point only responded with a short message stating that 
        Taiwan's information had been forwarded to expert colleagues; 
        China provided only a press release.
            ``(4) Even though Taiwan strongly suspected that human-to-
        human transmission of the disease was already occurring at the 
        time, we were unable to gain confirmation through existing 
        channels. Therefore, on the day the aforementioned email was 
        sent to WHO, the Taiwan government activated enhanced border 
        control and quarantine measures based on the assumption that 
        human-to-human transmission was in fact occurring. These 
        measures included screening passengers on flights from Wuhan 
        prior to disembarkation.
            ``(5) In mid-January, the Taiwan CDC dispatched experts to 
        Wuhan to gain a better understanding of the epidemic, the 
        control measures taken there, and patients' exposure history. 
        Based on preliminary research, Taiwan determined that this form 
        of pneumonia could indeed spread via human-to-human 
        transmission.''.

SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION FUNDING.

    (a) In General.--No funds may be provided as an assessed or 
voluntary contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO) until--
            (1) the World Health Organization replaces all of the top 
        leadership of the organization that was in place as of January 
        1, 2020, including the positions set forth in subsection (b); 
        and
            (2) Taiwan is accepted as a Member State of the World 
        Health Organization.
    (b) Covered Positions.--The positions referred to in subsection 
(a)(1) are as follows:
            (1) WHO Director-General.
            (2) WHO Deputy Director-General.
            (3) Chef de Cabinet.
            (4) Executive Director for External Relations and 
        Governance.
            (5) Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme.
            (6) Chief Scientist.
            (7) Senior Advisor to the Director-General, Organizational 
        Change.
            (8) Special Advisor to the Director-General.
            (9) Assistant Director-General, Special Advisor to the 
        Director-General, Strategic Priorities.
            (10) Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/
        Healthier Populations.
            (11) Assistant Director-General, Business Operations.
            (12) Assistant Director-General, WHO's office at the United 
        Nations in New York.
            (13) Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and 
        Health Products.
            (14) Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/
        Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases.
            (15) Assistant Director-General, Emergency Preparedness and 
        International Health Regulations.
            (16) Assistant-Director General, Strategic Initiatives.
            (17) Assistant Director-General, Emergency Response.
            (18) Director-General's Envoy for Multilateral Affairs.
            (19) Assistant Director-General, Antimicrobial Resistance.
            (20) Assistant Director-General, for Data, Analytics and 
        Delivery.
            (21) WHO Regional Director for Africa.
            (22) WHO Regional Director for the Americas.
            (23) WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia.
            (24) WHO Regional Director for Europe.
            (25) WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
            (26) WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific.
    (c) Limitation.--No funds may be provided as a United States 
assessed or voluntary contribution to the World Health Organization in 
a fiscal year in excess of the amount contributed by any other Member 
State of the organization during such fiscal year.
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