Exclusive: Conservatives Urge House Foreign Affairs to Take Up Bills that Defund, Withdraw from W.H.O.

House conservatives urged the House Foreign Affairs Committee to take up two bills that would defund and withdraw from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Alex Mooney (R-WV), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Barry Moore (R-AL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Bob Good (R-VA) wrote a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY), urging them to consider H.R. 79, the WHO Withdrawal Act, and H.R. 343, the No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act.

The WHO Withdrawal Act has 42 cosponsors and the No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act has 40 cosponsors.

Both bills have been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where the committee has yet to take action on them.

Biggs told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement that the Biden administration should not grant more authority to the W.H.O. which “issued ineffective health guidance” during the coronavirus pandemic. He explained, “Public health decisions in America ought to be made by elected officials here in America—not executives from an international organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The Biden Administration cannot grant more authority to an organization that is compromised by Communist China and that has repeatedly issued ineffective health guidance during the COVID global emergency. I’m grateful for Congressmen Roy and Norman for supporting my letter and remain hopeful that the House Foreign Affairs Committee advances our legislation.”

The House conservatives wrote in the letter to McCaul and Meeks that their constituents fear that the WHO has no accountability:

Every day, we hear from our constituents who worry that the Biden Administration’s
involvement with the WHO will result in more lockdowns and mandates, and no accountability for the CCP in the future.

President Donald Trump recognized the threat posed by the WHO and took action to end U.S. contributions. This decision was reversed by President Biden, who has since directed more than $700 million in federal funding to the WHO.

We have authored legislation in this area, H.R. 79, the WHO Withdrawal Act and H.R. 343, the No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act, which would protect Americans’ rights by withdrawing from the WHO and halting federal funds to the organization. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Committee on other approaches to disentangle the United States from the WHO.

Who Letter Final by Breitbart News on Scribd

“The WHO failed in its response to COVID-19, it is wholly out of step with the American people’s values, and it should lose every single penny of U.S. taxpayer money it gets. Republicans must stand up for the American people, their freedom and basic fiscal sanity, by telling the Biden administration, the WHO, and public health establishment to go pound sand,” Roy said in a written statement.

The House conservatives made their push against the W.H.O. as the health organization voted this week to increase their own membership fees by 20 percent, which would result in a $6.83 billion budget for 2024. This has been described as the “most ambitious [budget] to date.”

Breitbart News international news editor Frances Martel wrote about W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Andhanom Ghebreysy’s tenure:

The record budget allocation has followed a disastrous tenure for Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus marked by the W.H.O. sharing catastrophic Chinese government disinformation on the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, its refusal to allow the nation of Taiwan – which warned of an infectious disease spreading in Wuhan in late 2019 – to participate in its activities, and a sprawling sexual abuse scandal in which dozens of women say W.H.O. employees raped them or sexually exploited them in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The W.H.O. also announced in early May that the coronavirus pandemic is no longer a health emergency.

“As we examine the lessons learned from Covid, our nation’s involvement with the World Health Organization deserves extensive scrutiny,” Norman said in a written statement. “I can think of no other worldwide organization that has failed so miserably at its purpose and mission than the WHO, which is why I’m urging the House Foreign Affairs Committee to help distance the United States from that organization. I want to thank Rep. Biggs for his leadership on this important issue.”