All GOP senators press Biden not to support expanding WHO pandemic authority

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., led the entire Republican Senate conference in calling on President Biden to reject agreements that would expand the authority of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the case of a global pandemic.

"We strongly urge you not to join any pandemic related treaty, convention, or agreement being considered" at the 77th World Health Assembly, reads a letter sent to Biden by Johnson and all 48 other Republican senators.

The Republican senators stressed that any such agreement would be considered a treaty, which they noted requires "the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate under Article I Section 2 of the Constitution."

ERNST LEADS SENATE GOP DEMANDING BIDEN 'CEASE PLANNING' GAZA REFUGEE ACCEPTANCE

The World Health Assembly (WHA) will take place from May 27 to June 1, and international agreements are expected to be considered.

The WHA is the WHO's decision-making body, which meets yearly, so it can lay out its goals and craft policies between the 194 member states.

The senators emphasized the U.S. "cannot afford to ignore this latest WHO inability to perform its most basic function and must insist on comprehensive WHO reforms before even considering amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) or any new pandemic related treaty that would increase WHO authority."

SEN. TOM COTTON TAKES AIM AT STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS

The Republicans claimed that the latest draft of the WHO's new pandemic response treaty is "dead on arrival."

"Instead of addressing the WHO's well-documented shortcomings, the treaty focuses on mandated resource and technology transfers, shredding intellectual property rights, infringing [on] free speech, and supercharging the WHO," they