Paxton sues Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services to prevent the WHO from exercising troubling power over the United States

Austin, Texas — Attorney General Paxton is suing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the state of Oklahoma to remove from federal law an illegal provision that cedes our sovereignty to the World Health Organization (“WHO”).

HHS has been given certain police powers under federal law to respond to public health emergencies. The Obama-era rule, pending in a lawsuit that was finalized the day before former President Trump took office, gives the WHO the power to define and determine what a “public health emergency” is for internal purposes.

Late last year, the Biden administration rejected a petition filed by a group of states to repeal the part of the federal code that delegates to the WHO the authority to enforce emergency medical powers in the United States. Allowing the decisions of a corrupt and inept WHO to bind the actions of the United States at home is an unprecedented relinquishment of national sovereignty.

This ability to arbitrarily determine when the federal government can exercise power over the United States poses a serious threat to our constitutional order and system of federalism. The continued existence of this rule is even more bewildering when you consider the trust and close ties the WHO has with our geopolitical enemy, China, which have come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Biden administration’s defense against giving WHO the authority to determine when the federal government should violate the rights of our citizens is, to put it mildly, troubling and should not be upheld,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Absolutely no foreign power should be able to exercise police power over Texas or any other state, and this is especially true for a foreign organization with such a complex history as the WHO.”

To read the claim in full, click here.