Dems (and Gostin) Defend WHO, and a law firm wants to sue Trump but can’t find plaintiffs

https://www.devex.com/news/devex-newswire-usaid-s-staff-clashes-and-pepfar-s-partial-reprieve-109250

Fighting for WHO

Scores of Congressional representatives have written a letter to Trump asking that he “reevaluate” his order to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, arguing the U.S. “should not cede its title” as a global health leader. Their rationale: The move would endanger American jobs and American lives.

They’re not the only ones protesting. Lawrence Gostin, a renowned expert on global health law who teaches at Georgetown University, disagrees — and plans to challenge the withdrawal in court. [He has threatened this for several weeks and is probably waiting for a sugar daddy to pay for the lawsuit—Nass]

“I believe, and my legal team believes, that this is too monumental a decision to be left to the whim or even the grudge of a president and that it needs congressional approval. And that’s the basis upon which we’re considering legal challenges to Trump’s actions,” he tells my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo, calling the order “a mockery of … Congress” and a “gross violation of the law.”

Trump’s withdrawal order instructs officials to “identify credible and transparent United States and international partners to assume necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO.”

That’s easier said than done because much of what WHO does cannot simply be replicated by other partners, Devex contributing reporter Andrew Green writes. That includes disease surveillance, especially outbreaks that could spread beyond borders, and setting global guidelines that protect U.S. consumers.

It should again be noted that these people cannot come up with even one good argument for why the US should remain in the WHO. You can’t find anyone, among the 2-3,000 development employees whose jobs are at risk, who cannot replicate what the WHO does? Really? What might that be? WHO does not perform disease surveillance, it simply waits for nations to report outbreaks. And recall that WHO’s idea of “guidelines” was to make them binding orders.

Here is the letter from Dem members of the House.

https://www.devex.com/news/devex-newswire-usaid-s-staff-clashes-and-pepfar-s-partial-reprieve-109250

A lawsuit is expected to be filed today in Washington, D.C., challenging the foreign aid freeze and stop-work order, Adva tells me.

The objective is to obtain a temporary restraining order followed by a permanent injunction in which the court tells the Trump administration to unfreeze funding, restart payments, and provide clarity about cost reimbursement, including idle labor time, says Robert Nichols, a partner at Nichols Liu, the law firm bringing the suit.

The lawsuit will be based on violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, which “requires the court set aside agency actions that are arbitrary, capricious and abuse discretion or are otherwise not in accordance with the law,” he tells Adva.

However, it has been hard to find a plaintiff or plaintiffs willing to sue, Nichols said during a conference call Friday. The solution for now is that a 501c3 that represents members harmed by the funding freeze will be the lead plaintiff, though Nichols is looking for others to join.