BOISE, Idaho — One week ago, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch called for an investigation of the World Health Organization for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, President Trump announced a plan to do just that. He has directed a halt to U.S. payments to the WHO pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.
The president claimed the international organization failed to carry out its 'basic duty' with the coronavirus pandemic and should have done a better job investigating reports coming out of China. He added that the U.N. health agency must be held accountable.
In his role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Risch spoke with the WHO's top leaders on Tuesday.
He tells KTVB that the leaders are cooperating with the U.S. investigation.
"I asked them for, and they said they will produce, a detailed timeline that we could study containing details for each of the items on the timeline," Risch said. "And they agreed to do that and we will be moving forward in that direction and the objective that we all need to have is that when this happens again, and it will happen again given where we are as a species, and we need to talk about how we are gonna do better next time."
Risch said the health organization has a long history of complaints against it.
"At the very least, we oughta insist that they perform properly," he said. "The WHO, we've had complaints about them for a long, long time - as far as being slow, as far as being not effective, as far as not being able to do the job."
Critics of the plan say this is the worst possible time to be cutting funds and conducting an investigation of the leading international health organization.
"Withholding funds for WHO in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century makes as much sense as cutting off ammunition to an ally as the enemy closes in," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said on Tuesday.
When asked for a response to critics, Risch said the move is not about politics.
"The president is not cutting off fund money for the fight against coronavirus," he said. "What he is doing, saying, is that we are not getting the best bang for our buck through the WHO and he is looking at other organizations like our own CDC that could better spend that money.
"This is not a political matter," he added. "This is an important health challenge for every human on the planet regardless of your politics and regardless of your nationality."
The president said earlier on Tuesday that a review of the World Health Organization would take as long as 90 days.
At about $500 million per year, the U.S. is the single-largest contributor to the 75-year-old organization.
Facts not fear: More on coronavirus
See our latest updates in our YouTube playlist: