Today, 22 Republican State Attorneys General sent a letter to President Biden calling the World Health Organization’s proposed Pandemic Treaty and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHRs) “unacceptable” and pledging to “resist any attempt to enable the WHO to directly or indirectly set public policy for our citizens.”

The strongly worded letter spells out the “unprecedented and unconstitutional powers over the United States and her people” these international instruments could give to the WHO. It comes just one week after every Republican Senator signed a letter to the President calling on him to withdraw his support for the Treaty and IHRs or at a minimum, submit them to the Senate for its constitutionally-mandated advice and consent.

The Attorneys General state that these accords would “radically transform” the nature of the WHO “from an advisory, charitable organization into the world’s governor of public health.”  The documents, scheduled to be voted on by the World Health Assembly at the end of May and largely negotiated “behind closed doors,” would “threaten national sovereignty, undermine states’ authority, and imperil constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.”

They rightly note, if adopted, the Treaty and IHRs will give the WHO Director-General the ability to unilaterally declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) not just for pandemics, but any “perceived or potential emergencies . . ., including climate change, immigration, gun violence, or even ‘emergencies’ involving plants, animals, or ecosystems.”  The WHO could then dictate every nation’s response to such an emergency, meaning public health policies would no longer be made by our elected officials but by international bureaucrats.

As the officers charged with defending the rule of law, they remind the President, “the federal government cannot delegate public health decisions to an international body” because the “U.S. Constitution doesn’t vest responsibility for public health policy with the federal government. It reserves those powers for the States.”

Eagle Forum applauds the signatories of this letter and urges the Biden Administration to reject the Pandemic Treaty and IHRs. If the President chooses to ignore the threat to our sovereignty and agrees to these instruments, we implore the Senate to exercise its vital advice and consent responsibility before their ratification.