Three Republican members of Alabama’s congressional delegation recently signed on to a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
U.S. Reps. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile), Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) and Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) joined 86 of their fellow House Republican colleagues in sending the letter.
Along with calling on the administration to withdraw from the international public health agency, the lawmakers request documentation and communication between the White House and WHO. The Republicans also take issue with Biden’s proposed International Health Regulations (IHR) amendments, which they assert would expand WHO’s influence.
The letter also slams the administration for opting not to field a candidate to replace WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who the lawmakers say “undeniably assisted China in hiding the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In statements provided to Yellowhammer News, the three Alabama congressmen outlined their efforts to urge the White House to hold WHO and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable.
Carl noted that WHO and the CCP could have prevented the spread of COVID-19 and stated that their failure to do so “led to the deaths of millions.”
“The American people deserve greater transparency from the World Health Organization after they failed to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for letting COVID-19 spread around the world when it could have been prevented,” asserted Carl. “I will continue working with my colleagues to hold the WHO and the CCP accountable for their failures that led to the deaths of millions of innocent people, including countless Americans.”
According to Aderholt, WHO has expanded “well beyond” its founding purpose and has become “highly political.”
“I signed on to this letter because the World Health Organization has morphed well beyond its charter,” advised Aderholt. “It has lost its focus on world health and has become highly political. There are numerous examples, but I would put at the top of the list, the way they refused to stand up to the Chinese about COVID-19 and its origins.”
Brooks called WHO “pro-Chinese” and contended that the administration’s proposed amendments conflict with the constitutional process by which a treaty can lawfully be approved.
“[I] signed onto a House Republican letter to President Biden requesting further documentation on the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations,” stated Brooks. “By way of background, the IHR was last amended in 2005. There are reports that these proposed amendments “supersede the U.S. Constitution” and give the WHO more power. In America, the Constitution is supreme, and under the Constitution, the only foreign agreements that bind the United States are those that are in treaty form.”
He continued, “To constitute a binding treaty, the President must submit the proposed treaty for ratification by the U.S. Senate, where a two-thirds approval of the Senate is required. No two-thirds approval vote means no treaty, which means the United States is not bound by whatever the WHO does. With this in mind, Americans deserve better than to fund a pro-Chinese WHO through taxes. This is why I also proudly cosponsored H.R. 419, the No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
