An Alabama House resolution condemning the World Health Organization (WHO) passed Thursday after initially being delayed by a vote of 64-28.
House Joint Resolution No. 113Sponsored by Rep. Mac Butler (R-Rainbow City), it encourages the federal government to end funding and support for the WHO and reject international health regulations regarding pandemic preparedness.
“This is just to encourage Congress to defund it. We give them hundreds of millions of dollars a year and they don't give us any credit,” Butler said. Speaking on the House floor, he argued that the purported vote from Congress would confer U.S. sovereignty on the WHO.
Get the morning headlines delivered to your inbox
House Democrats did not buy that argument and questioned the motives behind the resolution.
Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, questioned how an international organization could control a sovereign nation.
“I'm seriously trying to understand. My perception of the World Health Organization is different than what I'm hearing from you,” she said.
Hall said it “seems like a personal response to a concern you have.”
Butler said he doesn't trust the WHO because of its response to the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that China created the virus in a laboratory and that the international health body covered it up.
In February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Energy supported the theory of a lab leak, but with “low confidence.” Polity Fact. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed with this assessment, but other U.S. government agencies say the coronavirus was naturally released through contact with infected animals.
PolitiFact reports that John Kirby said in a White House briefing on February 27, 2023, “There is currently no consensus within the U.S. government as to how the novel coronavirus started.'' It was reported that he said. “There is no intelligence community consensus.”
“In my opinion, if we had known about biological warfare, we could have dealt with this issue more easily,” Butler said.
Ahead of the debate, the House of Representatives approved a resolution affirming support for the Taiwanese government. Hall questioned how Americans will know whether it is safe to travel abroad.
“We're talking about travel to the area. So where is the health authority responsible for making sure that, health-wise, it's okay for something like that to happen?” she asked. .
Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said the coronavirus proves that one disease affecting one country can spread to another.
“There have been thousands of deaths because of the coronavirus,” she said. “Would you put that on them? Because the Trump administration was in power at the time. You know that, right?
Resolutions are often passed within a minute without debate, but debate over Butler's resolution lasted about an hour. House Republicans ultimately voted to continue the bill.
Rep. Thomas Jackson (D-Thomasville) said there could have been many more deaths throughout the pandemic without the WHO.
“When they issue a health order, we want to be the boss. Those days are over. That's why we have science. That's why we have doctors,” Jackson said. he said.
This story was updated at 2:01 p.m. to show the bill passed after being delayed.
