Senator Marsha Blackburn (TN) introduced a bill on Thursday that would make President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization permanent, barring massing reform.
The bill would block taxpayer dollars from either funding WHO programs or American membership in the organization unless the organization took significant steps to demonstrate independence from China and root out leftist ideology. Blackburn’s fellow Republican Senators John Barrasso (WY), Rick Scott (FL), and Ted Cruz joined Blackburn in putting the legislation forward.
“The World Health Organization has long been a puppet for the Chinese Communist Party, grossly mismanaging the COVID pandemic and taking over a billion dollars of U.S. funding without advancing our interests,” Blackburn told The Daily Wire. “We must support President Trump’s actions to hold the WHO accountable by ensuring any future president who wants to rejoin meets concrete conditions of improvement.”
The bill would codify Trump’s day one executive order withdrawing the United States from the organization, citing WHO handling of COVID and demands for “onerous” and unfair payments.
Under certain conditions, the legislation said that it would be possible for the United States to rejoin WHO. These conditions include the WHO adopting reforms to ensure that humanitarian aid is not politicized, demonstrate independence from the Chinese Communist Party, grant observer status to Taiwan, and end funding or promotion of things like abortion, climate change, and sex-change procedures.
Another condition would stipulate that humanitarian aid and medical supplies could not be diverted to Iran, Syria, and North Korea.
“American tax dollars cannot be used to fund the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) and World Health Organization’s (WHO) cover-up of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mismanagement, failed transparency, and lack of independence at the WHO is inexcusable,” Barrasso told The Daily Wire. “Our bill ensures that not one penny of taxpayer money is spent rejoining the WHO if serious reforms aren’t made to prevent another failed pandemic response.”
A companion version has been introduced in the House by Republican Representatives Jodey Arrington (TX), Ron Estes (KS), Greg Steube (FL), and Anna Paulina Luna (FL).
When Trump issued the executive order last month to pull America out of WHO, he said that the country was paying too much to be a member of the United Nations-backed organization in comparison to other countries like China.
“So we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here and I terminated it,” Trump said, adding that it “seemed a little unfair” because China was paying around $39 million to the organization.
Trump ended American participation in WHO back in 2020, but that decision was later reversed by Joe Biden.