The bill introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), HR 2745, left committee yesterday evening and will go before the full House today for a vote. The bill would withhold half of the US’s dues to the Koffing #### Krooks Klub and demand reforms before funding is resumed. In lieu of just shutting the damned place down and kicking the ######## out, this sounds like a good plan to me ....
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is ready to decide whether to slash U.S. contributions if the United Nations doesn’t carry out reforms. Lawmakers had to weigh their frustrations with the international body against administration objections that the legislation could be counterproductive.
The legislation under debate and facing a vote Friday would withhold half of U.S. dues to the U.N.’s general budget if the organization doesn’t meet a list of demands for change. Failure to comply would also result in U.S. refusal to support expanded and new peacekeeping missions.
Before the final vote, legislators discussed the seating of such human rights abusers as Cuba and Sudan on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the oil-for-food program that became a source of up to $10 billion in illicit revenue for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., proposed an amendment under which the United States would use its influence to ensure that any member engaged in acts of genocide or crimes against humanity would lose its U.N. membersship and face arms and trade embargoes.
“Over the years, as we listened to the counsels for patience, the U.N.’s failings have grown,” said House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., sponsor of the measure. “The time has finally come where we must in good conscience say ‘enough.’”
Hyde was joined by lawmakers with a litany of complaints against what they said was the U.N.’s lavish spending, its coddling of rogue regimes, its anti-America, anti-Israel bias and recent scandals such as the mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq and the sexual misconduct of peacekeepers.
The bill lists 39 reforms sought. They include cutting the public information budget by 20 percent, establishing an independent oversight board and an ethics office, and denying countries that violate human rights from serving on human rights commissions.
The secretary of state would have to certify that 32 of the 39 reforms have been met by September 2007, and all 39 by the next year, to avoid a withdrawal of 50 percent of assessed dues.
U.S.-assessed dues account for about 22 percent of the U.N.’s $2 billion annual general budget.
The financial penalties would not apply to the U.N.’s voluntarily funded programs, which include UNICEF and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. |
