Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee, today issued the following statement as an international working group begins a months-long process of drafting a binding pandemic treaty that could cede American sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO):

            “The Biden Administration must not empower bureaucrats of the WHO—a troubled United Nations body that took disastrous missteps in the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak—with a new binding agreement that would tie our hands in the event of a future pandemic.

            Many American citizens remain rightfully alarmed that the Biden Administration is poised to cede our US sovereignty to a corrupt UN bureaucracy and its Chinese-backed Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus—and I share their grave concerns.

            President Biden—who continues to remain silent on this unconscionable move to surrender US sovereignty—has failed to reassure us that he will protect our Constitution from UN bureaucrats, ever since his Administration quietly submitted absurd proposals last year granting new unilateral authority to the WHO to declare a public health crisis in the US and other sovereign nations without any prior consultation.

            It was only after extensive public outcry over the outrageous breach of constitutional principle from me and other concerned Americans—in addition to representatives from a host of other countries—that the Biden Administration reluctantly withdrew its initial proposals. But now the same issues are back.

            The Biden Administration must commit to protecting US sovereignty and not cede decision-making to global elites who seek to override the American people.

            Instead of subjecting our great American government to an agenda-driven global bureaucracy, the Biden Administration must push for top-to-bottom reform at the WHO starting with the immediate ouster of Tedros—something I have repeatedly argued that is urgently needed now more than ever.”

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