[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


      PERSONNEL IS POLICY: U.N. ELECTIONS AND U.S. LEADERSHIP IN 
                             INTERNATIONAL
                             ORGANIZATIONS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                            SUBCOMMITTEE ON
         INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
                   AND GLOBAL CORPORATE SOCIAL IMPACT

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION
                               __________

                           November 18, 2021
                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-92
                               __________

        Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
        
        
                  [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]        


Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, 
                       or http://www.govinfo.gov
                                              
                              ___________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
46-095PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2022                          
                       



                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                  GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York, Chairman

BRAD SHERMAN, California             MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas, Ranking 
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey                  Member
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia	     CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida	     STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
KAREN BASS, California		     SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts	     DARRELL ISSA, California
DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island	     ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
AMI BERA, California		     LEE ZELDIN, New York
JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas		     ANN WAGNER, Missouri
DINA TITUS, Nevada		     BRIAN MAST, Florida
TED LIEU, California		     BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania	     KEN BUCK, Colorado
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota	     TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota		     MARK GREEN, Tennessee
COLIN ALLRED, Texas		     ANDY BARR, Kentucky
ANDY LEVIN, Michigan		     GREG STEUBE, Florida
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia	     DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania	
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania	     AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas
TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey	     PETER MEIJER, Michigan
ANDY KIM, New Jersey		     NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York
SARA JACOBS, California		     RONNY JACKSON, Texas
KATHY MANNING, North Carolina	     YOUNG KIM, California
JIM COSTA, California		     MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida
JUAN VARGAS, California		     JOE WILSON, South Carolina
VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois



                    Sophia Lafargue, Staff Director

               Brendan Shields, Republican Staff Director
                                 ------                                

Subcommittee on International Development, International Organizations 
                   and Global Corporate Social Impact

                    JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas, Chairman

SARA JACOBS, California              NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York, 
BRAD SHERMAN, California                 Ranking Member
ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota		     CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania	     DARRELL ISSA, California
ANDY KIM, New Jersey		     LEE ZELDIN, New York

                                     
                                     
                                     
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               WITNESSES

Barks-Ruggles, Ambassador Erica, Senior Bureau Official, Bureau 
  of International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State     7

                                APPENDIX

Hearing Notice...................................................    31
Hearing Minutes..................................................    32
Hearing Attendance...............................................    33

            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Responses to questions submitted for the record..................    34

 
      PERSONNEL IS POLICY: U.N. ELECTIONS AND U.S. LEADERSHIP IN 
                      INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

                      Thursday, November 18, 2021

                          House of Representatives,
         Subcommittee on International Development,
 International Organizations, and Global Corporate 
                                     Social Impact,
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs,
                                                    Washington, DC.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in 
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joaquin Castro 
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Mr. Castro. The Subcommittee on International Development, 
International Organizations, and Global Corporate Social Impact 
will come to order.
    Good morning, everyone. Thank you to our witness for being 
here today for this hearing entitled ``Personnel is Policy: 
U.N. Elections and U.S. Leadership in International 
Organizations.''
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the committee at any point, and all members will have 
5 days to submit statements, extraneous material, and questions 
for the record, subject to length limitation in our rules. To 
insert something into the record, please have your staff email 
the document to the previously mentioned address, or contact 
subcommittee staff.
    As a reminder to members joining remotely, please keep your 
video function on at all times even when you are not recognized 
by the chair. Members are responsible for muting and unmuting 
themselves. And please remember to mute yourself after you 
finish speaking.
    Consistent with the H. Res. 8 and the accompanying 
regulations, staff will only mute members and witnesses as 
appropriate when they are not under recognition to eliminate 
background noise. I also ask members who are present in the 
hearing room to keep their masks on when they are not speaking.
    I see that we have a quorum and will now recognize myself 
for opening remarks.
    Pursuant to notice, we are holding a hearing today on the 
United States' engagement with the United Nations and other 
international organizations, upcoming leadership elections at 
the United Nations, and the Biden Administration's policies to 
more effectively engage with these multilateral bodies.
    After the Second World War, the United States worked with 
our allies and adversaries to create the United Nations, the 
entity that is at the foundation of today's international 
system. Much of world's diplomacy is centered around the United 
Nations and its various component agencies and offices. The 
work at the United Nations today covers everything from nuclear 
nonproliferation to human rights to the standards that 
determine how technology will be developed.
    It is essential that the United States stays deeply engaged 
with the U.N. To preserve and advance our interests within this 
international system, using diplomacy and negotiation instead 
of conflict and coercion.
    I called this hearing today to understand from the 
Administration and the State Department how they will do that, 
including when it comes to key elections to U.N. bodies.
    We know what it looks like when the United States' approach 
isn't well-coordinated. And I will give you an example of that. 
The heads of U.N. bodies are determined by elections where 
member States build coalitions and support candidates that 
reflect their values. In 2019, the United Nations Food and 
Agriculture Organization was scheduled to elect its director 
general, someone who would have a key role in setting 
international policy on agriculture and food security. The 
United States, under the last Administration, approached this 
critical election without a clear strategy or goal. Not only 
did we split with our European allies, reports indicate that 
the State Department and the Department of Agriculture, both 
agencies that work with the Food and Agriculture Organization, 
weren't on the same page on which candidate to back.
    Ultimately, the Government of China was able to get one of 
its senior government officials elected to the office, a 
serious setback for the United States and for our European 
allies and allies around the world.
    The lessons of this experience are why I am encouraged to 
see the Biden Administration and the Blinken State Department 
make concrete efforts to better coordinate our work in 
international organizations. This year, the State Department 
created the new Office of Multilateral Strategy amd Personnel 
that will coordinate the actions of the United States on these 
elections.
    I am also encouraged to see the Administration's early and 
vocal support of Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin's candidacy to lead 
the International Telecommunications Union during the upcoming 
fall 2022 elections. I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. 
Bogdan-Martin recently and believe she would be an effective 
leader of the ITU, an organization where major decisions on 
standards and technology are set.
    Other major elections are looming, including for the 
International Labor Organization, the World Health 
Organization, Interpol, and others.
    I hope to hear from the Administration on their approaches 
to these contests as well. I would also like to hear from the 
Administration on what they will do to expand the use of tools, 
like the Junior Professional Officer Program, which allows 
countries to sponsor young professionals to work at the United 
Nations, or the use of existing authorities to allow U.S. 
Federal Government employees to be detailed to international 
organizations.
    I believe the State Department should be proactive in 
identifying where these opportunities are, building awareness 
of them within the rest of the Department and with other 
Federal agencies, and coordinating the placement of these 
individuals.
    We have seen some Federal agencies, such as the Centers for 
Disease Control, make good use of these authorities to place 
employees in international organizations, but these efforts 
across the Federal Government are uneven and inconsistent. We 
need a more strategic approach that the State Department can 
provide.
    This year I introduced the Restoring U.S. Leadership in 
International Organizations Act of 2021. The legislation will 
strengthen the State Department's ability to do just that. And 
I am glad that key parts of the bill are now included in this 
committee's EAGLE Act, which is currently being debated by the 
Congress.
    The President will convene a summit for democracy this 
December, which will kick off a year of action to advance 
democratic values. In the spirit of advancing democratic 
values, it is essential that the United States does everything 
we can to ensure that international organizations do not become 
the means by which authoritarian powers entrench their 
policies.
    And, with that, I will turn it over to Ranking Member 
Malliotakis for her opening statement.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this 
important hearing. I look forward to working with you and the 
rest of the committee members to conduct important oversight of 
our engagement with the United Nations and other international 
organizations.
    Ambassador, thank you for being here and for your service 
with the State Department.
    This hearing comes at a pivotal time. In recent years, we 
have seen the United States-led international order challenged 
as rogue States like China and Russia seek to advance their 
authoritarian agendas and undermine sovereignty in places like 
Ukraine and the South China Sea.
    As we saw in the early stages of COVID-19, international 
organizations often oppose our national interests. The World 
Health Organization routinely parroted Chinese Communist Party 
talking points, which conflict with statements made by their 
own experts, leaving the American people exposed to the havoc 
that COVID-19 would wreak on our Nation.
    Instead of serving the American people who fund them, the 
bureaucrats at the WHO continuously kowtow to President Xi and 
his cronies, genocidal actors whose goal is to remake the world 
in their Communist image.
    China's bad behavior has not been limited to the WHO. They 
have consistently sought to exclude Taiwan from international 
organizations in general, including the International Civil 
Aviation Organization. And, during the early days of the COVID-
19 pandemic, ICAO, which was then headed by a Chinese national, 
blocked users on Twitter who requested Taiwan be allowed to 
participate in COVID-19 response efforts at the organization. 
Those blocks included think tank analysts and journalists. Such 
behavior is exemplary of China's approach to Taiwan's 
participation in international organizations.
    The United Nations and international organizations more 
broadly often oppose our national interests. Last month, the 
United States was elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, a 
fundamentally corrupt body with a track record of protecting 
dictatorships and covering up the crimes of the world's worst 
human rights abusers. It is astounding that China, Russia, 
Venezuela, Cuba all have seats at the table at the supposed 
shrine of human rights in Geneva. It is laughable. Nicolas 
Maduro, dictator in Venezuela, was speaking at the opening 
session earlier this year. And, additionally, the council has 
focused its efforts on persecuting Israel, the only country 
permanently featured on the council's agenda as its own item.
    This Administration has done nothing to drive real reform 
at the council. These reforms should have been a prerequisite 
for the U.S. reengaging with the council--something that I had 
suggested time and again--let alone seeking election to it, not 
a lofty goal left to be achieved sometime in the future.
    The same can be said for the President's decision to 
unilaterally rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change 
without congressional consultation. While costing Americans 
trillions of dollars, the agreements permits the world's 
largest carbon emitter, China, to make meager contributions. 
Under the agreement, the CCP may continue raising carbon 
emissions until 2030, destroying our environment and 
contributing to climate change every step of the way.
    When the United States engages with the United Nations, its 
agencies, or other international organizations, we bring not 
only our values but also our financial contributions. The U.S. 
accounts for roughly one quarter of both the regular and 
peacekeeping budgets at the United Nations, yet our influence 
rarely measures up to our contributions.
    Chairman Castro, I look forward to working with you to 
conduct rigorous oversight on U.S. engagement with the United 
Nations and other international organizations. We have a duty 
to the American taxpayer to ensure that our engagement with 
these institutions is targeted, strategic, and advances America 
first interest abroad. Otherwise, we are wasting our time and 
our constituents' money. Again, I want to thank the witness for 
being here today, and I look forward to your testimony.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, ranking member.
    I will now introduce our distinguished witness with us 
today. Our witness is Ambassador Erica Barks-Ruggles, the 
Senior Bureau Official at the Department of State's Bureau of 
International Organization Affairs. She is a career Foreign 
Service officer who previously served as a U.S. Ambassador to 
the Republic of Rwanda. She has also served as the U.S. Council 
General in Cape Town, South Africa, as Deputy U.S. Permanent 
Representative to the United Nations.
    And I will now recognize our witness for 5 minutes. And, 
without objection, your prepared written statements will be 
made part of the record. Ambassador Barks-Ruggles, you are 
recognized for 5 minutes.

  STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR ERICA BARKS-RUGGLES, SENIOR BUREAU 
 OFFICIAL, BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS, U.S. 
                      DEPARTMENT OF STATE

    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Good morning, and thank you Chairman 
Castro, Ranking Member Malliotakis, and the members of the 
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations for 
having me here today.
    Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States 
has re-engaged vigorously on the multilateral stage to support 
key U.S. priorities. We have rejoined the Paris Agreement. We 
have recommitted to the World Health Organization, and we have 
been reelected to Human Rights Council.
    But U.S. leadership in the U.N. system involves more than 
simply signing on to existing institutions or re-engaging with 
U.N. bodies. We are leading with the power of our example, 
rekindling old alliances and forging new partnerships.
    For example, the United States is by far the largest single 
country contributor to COVAX, and we are making hundreds of 
millions of doses of vaccine available without political 
strings attached. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference that 
ended recently, the United States showed a whole-of-government 
response to the climate crisis. And we are mobilizing the 
necessary investment in technologies to promote good jobs in 
the United States while growing a prosperous net-zero emissions 
economy in the U.S. and globally.
    We must ensure that the U.N. system as a key global 
platform in all of these efforts is strong and resilient and 
able to uphold the fundamental values of democracy, justice, 
transparency and respect for individual human rights. We are 
committed to ensuring that the U.N. Has the skilled, well-
qualified, and capable leadership and personnel it needs to 
respond to global challenges.
    One of the IO Bureau's co-responsibilities is to lead the 
State Department's efforts in the appointment and election of 
qualified, independent U.S. and likeminded candidates to 
leadership positions throughout the U.N. system. As you 
mentioned, Mr. Chairman, this is critical to ensure the U.N. 
operates effectively and bolsters reform and good governance 
that the ranking member has underlined as so important.
    Thanks to funding that Congress provided earlier this year, 
our Bureau stood up the Office of Multilateral Strategy amd 
Personnel, known by an acronym, of course, as IO/MSP, to 
reinforce U.S. leadership and priorities, including on priority 
elections and appointments. IO/MSP coordinates with rest of the 
Department to ensure the Administration advances an affirmative 
agenda that revitalizes and expands partnerships in support of 
a rules-based international order. This includes countering the 
efforts of countries, such as the People's Republic of China 
and Russia, to reshape and underline international law, 
institutions, and standards.
    Since April 2021, the U.S. has won five U.N. elections, 
including a seat on the Human Rights Council and electing 
independent American experts to the Committee on the 
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee Against 
Torture, the International Narcotics Control Board, and the 
International Civil Service Commission.
    Looking ahead, a top U.S. Government priority is the 
candidacy of Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who is running against a 
Russian candidate to become the next Secretary General of the 
International Telecommunicatons Union, the ITU. With three 
decades of experience in the telecom sector, Ms. Bogdan-Martin 
would be the first woman to head the ITU in its 156-year 
history if she is elected. Her election would also help expand 
universal connectivity and uphold an open and multistakeholder 
approach to internet governance against State-led models urged 
by some authoritarian nations.
    In addition to leadership positions, IO promotes U.S. 
employment in the U.N. system more broadly, including through 
expanding the opportunities for Americans in the U.N.'s Junior 
Professional Officer Program, known as the JPO Program, and 
broadening outreach to all Americans interested in a U.N. 
career. We appreciate the JPO funding that has been provided 
through the IO & P account. This funding is currently 
restricted, however, to positions only within the U.N. 
Secretariat, and we look forward to working with Congress to 
expand our JPO efforts more broadly through the U.N. system.
    IO has also funded technology-based solutions to ensure 
that we use the best and most current data to manage elections 
and personnel and to make decisions in the future. With 
congressional support, we are planning to build customized data 
bases and analytic tools to manage multilateral elections, 
organize U.S. employment efforts, and track U.N. member States' 
voting histories to improve U.S. negotiating expertise and 
inform policymaking.
    While personnel is paramount, the Department also 
scrutinized draft resolutions and other documents to ensure 
they reflect international values, not the ideology of foreign 
policy initiatives of individual States. When we see language 
that runs counter to U.S. interests, U.N. values, or 
international law, we coordinate engagements with other 
countries to contest that. We also support Taiwan's meaningful 
participation throughout the U.N. system, including at the WHO 
and in ICAO.
    In short, we are back to make sure that the U.N. advances 
the interests of the United States and the American people.
    I thank you for your interest in these issues and the 
opportunity to appear today, and I look forward to your 
questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Barks-Rubbles follows:]

    [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Ambassador, for your testimony. And 
thank you for helping us lead the world again.
    I will now recognize members for 5 minutes each. And, 
pursuant to House rules, all time yielded is for the purposes 
of questioning our witnesses. Because of the hybrid format of 
this hearing, I will recognize members by committee seniority, 
alternating between the majority and the minority. If you miss 
your turn, please let our staff know, and we will recognize 
you, but we will circle back to you. If you seek recognition, 
you must unmute your microphone and address the chair verbally.
    And I will start by recognizing myself, but actually before 
I do, for the members I have, especially the folks that are on 
the video, please be sure to watch the 5-minute timer so that 
we can keep our questions to 5 minutes, you know, within a few 
seconds or whatever. And, since we only have one witness, we 
may actually have time for a second round of questions again if 
time permits. So I will start by recognizing myself.
    Ambassador, the United States' work with international 
organizations runs across the State Department and across 
multiple Federal agencies, as you know. Over two dozen parts of 
the U.S. Government provide funding to different international 
organizations, and individual bureaus at the State Department 
handle policy toward different organizations. I think it is 
important to make sure that the State Department plays the key 
role when it comes to foreign affairs, and by that I mean, the 
State Department, not DHS, not DOJ, or another agency.
    How will the State Department make sure that U.S. policy 
across the Federal Government is coordinated when it comes to 
elections and placement? And will the State Department set up 
an interagency mechanism to streamline that coordination? And 
can you describe your outreach efforts to build awareness of 
the opportunities for Federal employees to be detailed to 
international organizations? And what barriers do you see in 
fully using that authority?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for 
your question. The State Department is indeed in the lead on 
our efforts in international organizations. And with the help 
of this Congress and the setting up of the IO/MSP Office, we 
have reinforced that effort over the course of the last 9 
months. This has been an important effort because it has 
required everybody to be more coordinated within the State 
Department but also in the interagency, and it has allowed us 
to recapture the leadership effort to make sure that we are 
coordinated.
    So let me give you a couple of examples. Our IO/MSP 
Office--and I have our new director here with me today, Mr. 
Andy Shaw--has set up several units, one of which is on the 
strategic competition side, working to develop and implement 
efforts to address strategic competition across the U.N. 
system, whether that be language, access for Taiwan, and also 
making sure that we are placing people in the correct positions 
throughout the U.N. system.
    A second unit is working on electoral campaigns or U.S. 
officials and American citizens across the system. And so this 
unit has done things like--I brought some examples today--
producing campaign materials, including from Ms. Bogdan-
Martin--I have also her pin, and I am happy to share those with 
folks--to make sure that we are putting forth at an early stage 
our efforts on electoral campaigns and to strongly back with 
the backing of the entire American Government, not just the 
State Department. We have the Commerce Department. We have our 
private sector working with us to make sure that we have a 
coordinated, well-managed campaign for Ms. Bogdan-Martin and 
for our candidates across the U.N. system.
    And then a third area is the placement of U.S. citizens 
from the JPO level, the very junior professional officer level 
throughout. So we have put in place Standard Operating 
Procedures about how we advertise U.N. positions that are 
available. So those are now publicly available, we link to the 
U.N. system, and we are working with folks who are interested 
and applying for jobs to make sure that we are advocating for 
them. If they are Americans who are applying for jobs and they 
make themselves known to us, we are then advocating for their 
placement in the U.N. system. Whether they are coming from 
inside the government or coming from the private sector, we 
make sure they are well-qualified. We make sure that they have 
the requisite expertise for the job they are applying for, but 
we are also working with other agencies. So, if it is a law 
enforcement position, with the DOJ; if it is for something in 
FAO, we make sure that Agriculture is aware of those citizens 
and is working with us to make sure that they get those 
placements.
    So this is the beginning, not the end, but we appreciate 
the support, and we look forward to working with this committee 
to strengthen that effort.
    Mr. Castro. Great. And you may have to take part of the 
next question for the record because I only got about 45 
seconds left. But I support the Administration's decision to 
create this Office of Multilateral Strategy amd Personnel where 
you have asked for the funding for five staff positions. This 
is in contrast to the efforts before that drew down the number 
of State Department employees with this portfolio to zero.
    So what is the status of this office getting set up and 
operational? And what are its early priorities? Do you have any 
constraints when it comes to authorities or funding for the 
office to effectively do its job? We got like 10 seconds, so 
maybe for the record.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Just very briefly. We are hiring now for 
the office. When it is fully staffed, it will have 15 members, 
plus a Deputy Assistant Secretary. We are about half staffed at 
this point. We look forward to filling the rest of those 
positions shortly.
    Mr. Castro. Wonderful. Thank you.
    I now recognize Ranking Member Malliotakis for her 
questions.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Thank you. Ambassador, part of the 
frustration of the American people is that they fear our 
country is making bad deals that put us at a disadvantage. You 
mentioned three things that the Biden Administration has done 
since taking office: re-entering the Paris accord, re-entering 
WHO, and re-entering the U.N. Human Rights Council. However, 
they did so enter the Paris accord without demanding a level 
playing field from China or India. They re-entered this accord 
without any changes that would give America an advantage, or at 
least a level playing field.
    With regards to the World Health Organization, they didn't 
even demand an investigation into the origins. And, you know, 
as evidence points to the Wuhan lab and more Americans want 
accountability, the President said he was going to do a 90-day 
review, and then nothing happened after that. It was just a, 
you know, kicking the can down the road.
    With regards to the U.N. Human Rights Council, there was no 
plan to eliminate bad actors on the Council. And I still do not 
hear a plan from this Administration on how we are going to get 
rid of those egregious human rights violators: Russia, China, 
Cuba, Venezuela.
    So the question is, why should the American people have 
faith that their--our participation and their tax dollars that 
significantly fund, for the majority of the funding in these 
organizations, are going to be utilized in a strategic manner 
when we are giving away the store, we are going back to a 
negotiation that we saw under President Obama, giving away our 
leverage, giving away our funding without getting anything in 
return, at least any commitments that--level the playing field 
if not going to put America first?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you, Ranking Member, for your 
question. Let me address, first, the Human Rights Council. This 
is a body which we share your concerns about. The membership is 
far from perfect, and it contains some of very problematic 
countries that have gross human rights abusers on the Council. 
We agreed that we need to work hard to improve that membership. 
We have been working with like-minded allies to recruit better 
candidates because the candidate pool has to be better in order 
to get folks elected. And we agree with you that that is 
something that we need to focus on and that we will be focusing 
on as we move forward.
    We also agree that there are reform efforts that are 
needed. We have seen, when we are not present, however, that it 
creates a vacuum that has actually made the situation worse. We 
have seen rising language pushed by authoritarian governments 
in a number of resolutions which have undermined the individual 
human rights values on which the very Council is founded. So we 
need to be present to fight for those values, to fight for 
American democratic values, and individual human rights, but 
also to improve the Council. And we believe that that is 
important.
    I will briefly address the WHO. We agree that the initial 
response to the pandemic globally should have been better and 
could have been better. We have pushed very hard for the WHO to 
undertake a rigorous scientific-based investigation into the 
origins of COVID. And we were quite critical of the first 
origins report which was published in April. We are pleased 
that the WHO since then has launched a followup in the origins 
2 investigation effort that is based on science. They have put 
together a SAGO, which is a group of experts, scientific 
experts from around the world, to look at their origins in this 
second report, and we are pushing for that to go forward.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Well, I hope they will take a much 
stronger approach in what we have seen, both against the Human 
Rights Council, because I have not seen anything from the 
Ambassador truly speaking out against the egregious violations 
of those countries that sit on this Human Rights Council. 
Obviously, makes it a farce, this Council. And we need to 
reform it. And I would like to see more speaking in support of 
that.
    And, also with WHO, I mean, it is so critically important 
that this Administration gets serious about working with the 
international partners to get to the bottom, so, No. 1, we can 
prevent it from happening again, but, also, we can push back on 
this rhetoric from the Communist Chinese Party that we are 
seeing, saying now that this virus--they are saying was created 
in a U.S. Army base in Maryland. It is outrageous. And we need 
to play a stronger role. We cannot allow these bad actors to 
get away with this. And I appreciate it. I would love to hear 
more about the Paris accord in the next round. Thank you.
    Mr. Castro. All right. Sounds good. Next we have the vice 
chair of our committee, Ms. Sara Jacobs, Congressman Jacobs.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And I 
really appreciate you putting--hosting this hearing.
    As an American who worked at the United Nations, I can tell 
you that we are few and far between in that organization, and 
it will be great to get more folks in there.
    As was mentioned in the chair's testimony and the witness' 
testimony, we have that International Telecommunication Union 
vote coming up for the next Secretary General. I actually know 
Doreen Bogdan-Martin. We worked together when I was at UNICEF 
and running an organization, and I think she is wonderful. She 
has three decades of experience. And the stakes are clearly 
very high.
    But, Ambassador Barks-Ruggles, I was hoping if you could 
just, for the record, explain for the committee why this 
election is so important.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you very much, Member Jacobs. The 
election to the ITU is critically important because the ITU's 
work and mandate are important to U.S. defense, to space, to 
development, and to our economic interest. This campaign has 
broad interagency support because of that. The ITU is partly 
responsible for internet and telecommunications governance. It 
was set up 156 years ago, well before the U.N. itself, to 
allocate bandwidth across telecommunications. That is still 
part of its primary purpose and is absolutely essential when 
you look at WiFi infrastructure and telecommunications 
infrastructure on which our committee depends. This is an 
absolutely critical institution, and we need to have a leader 
who reflects our values but who also will help ensure the 
development of telecoms across the globe is based on a 
multistakeholder approach with the values of openness, 
transparency, and efficiency that we need to see to make this 
sector as efficient and as transparent as possible for the 
benefit of our companies as well as for the benefit of those of 
our allies, friends, and partners around the world.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you. And how can Congress best help 
the State Department in this election?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. As Representative Castro has 
said, as Chairman Castro has said, I know a number of Members 
of Congress have already met with Ms. Bogdan-Martin, and she 
will be coming back to meet with other Members of Congress. We 
think it is important to highlight why the ITU matters and also 
to work with the private sector to make sure that they are 
involved in this. I know that Members of Congress have been 
extremely supportive of her election, and we look forward to 
working with you as we move forward with her campaign and 
making sure that the American people understand why this 
matters.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you so much. And please count my 
office in to help with whatever we can do.
    I wanted to switch topics a little bit. A recent article in 
the Journal of Democracy found that China has used its seat on 
the U.N. Economic and Social Council's Committee on NGO's to 
block applications from civil society organizations seeking 
consultative status to participate in important U.N. 
activities, like gaining access to sessions and speaking at 
events. These activities are very critical to make sure that 
civil society's voice is heard and consulted when really big 
decisions are being made.
    So we have talked a lot about electing good candidates to 
prevent these kinds of situations. But what else can be done at 
the U.N. to mitigate or prevent this misuse of a U.N. seat? And 
what else have you seen this type of behavior by China or other 
countries?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Yes, this is one of those places where 
nefarious things can happen because it is fairly obscure. The 
ECOSOC NGO Committee's current membership is, unfortunately, 
not great and is fairly hostile it NGO's, reflecting a global 
trend that restricts civil society space in international 
organizations. We have serious concerns about restriction of 
civil society, and we have been pushing very hard with the U.N. 
Secretariat and in the Committee and with other allies to make 
sure that we walk back those efforts and ensure that the 
Committee's work is open, transparent, and accessible to civil 
society, and that the U.N. is open and transparent and 
accessible to civil society.
    We were pleased that just yesterday the new President of 
the General Assembly held on open meeting with members of civil 
society and has pledged that they will have renewed access 
post-COVID, starting in January of next year to the U.N. 
headquarters building as it had before.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate all of 
your work on that.
    And, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Vice Chair.
    We will now go to Representative Houlahan.
    Mr. Issa. Really?
    Ms. Houlahan. No, I think you should go to Mr. Issa.
    Mr. Castro. Darrell, I didn't see you on the video. There 
you are. All right.
    First, we are going to go to Darrell Issa. He was off video 
for a second. Please.
    Mr. Issa. Yes, no problem. I have always thought, every 
time a take a sip of coffee, I should probably be off video.
    But, Ambassador, thank you so much for giving us so much of 
your time today. I am going to focus on the free people of 
Taiwan. As you know all too well, when Richard Nixon made the 
decision to recognize mainland China, rather than two Chinas, 
he made a decision to switch the recognition from one country 
to another. But as effectively happened as a result is, with 
only a couple of exceptions, no one recognizes Taiwan as an 
independent country, and those who continued to, China has used 
its vaccine and other techniques to essentially bribe/extort or 
attempt to extort a change in recognition. That is at the same 
time as they are building islands, threatening both Taiwan and 
likely Japan and the other countries in the region.
    In your testimony, you said you wanted to support Taiwan. 
Currently, Taiwan is treated as a noncitizen at the WHO and a 
host of other U.N. activities. They clearly do not get--by the 
way, includes the access to vaccine--they do not get treated 
as, if you will, part of China by China. What, specifically, 
will you be doing to ensure access to the free people of Taiwan 
to standing as necessary in agencies, particularly, since it is 
very clear that China does not share if you ask them to help 
Taiwan?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you for your important question. 
We will continue the U.S. policy of supporting Taiwan's 
meaningful participation in the U.N. and its related 
organizations. We are working closely with friends and allies 
on this issue to facilitate their ability to contribute to 
efforts on public health at the WHA and in other health 
organizations, in law enforcement efforts, in civil aviation 
safety, and on other issues.
    We also are concerned in three areas. One, access. We 
believe that Taiwan's citizens should have access to U.N. 
buildings, U.N. headquarters, and be able to contribute, and we 
continue to press for that to happen. We are also concerned 
about nomenclature and efforts to change the way that Taiwan is 
referred to in U.N. documents, and we will continue to push 
back on that. And as I said, we will continue to press for 
Taiwan to have meaningful participation in areas where its 
expertise and experiences can contribute to responses to things 
like pandemics, but also to aviation safety around the world.
    Mr. Issa. Thank you, Ambassador. And just following up, you 
know, you have used the term appropriately you will continue as 
previous Administrations, but each Administration has seen more 
threats to Taiwan. As you know, Taiwan represents as much as 80 
percent of the supply chain of integrated circuits chips to the 
United States and similar amounts to many other countries of 
the world.
    Do you believe--and I know policy is always difficult to 
say on the fly--but do you believe that the United States has 
an obligation to use the United Nations in order to spell out 
or reiterate the prohibition on the taking of China, either 
directly, militarily, or through economic coercion by China? 
And isn't the United Nations an appropriate venue to bolster 
that security rather than simply sending our fleets to confront 
China in the strait?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. There are a number of 
different venues where we have spoken very plainly and very 
recently about our commitment to Taiwan's security. And I think 
I will let those statements stand for themselves. I think they 
are important, and we will continue to press on our consistent 
policy in defense of Taiwan.
    Mr. Issa. And I guess, last, specifically, at the WHO, what 
reforms--if you are able to maneuver, you know, the United 
States having influence over China--would you bring about to 
prevent the kind of misinformation we saw from the WHO during 
the early parts of the pandemic?
    Mr. Castro. You can take that one for the record.
    Mr. Issa, your time is up, but we are going to have a 
second round.
    Mr. Issa. Thank you.
    Mr. Castro. OK. We will go to Representative Houlahan.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    And thank you so much for joining us today.
    My first question has to do with, earlier this year, I 
reintroduced legislation to authorize an annual U.S. 
contribution to the UNFPA, or the United Nations Population 
Fund, and with more than a hundred of my colleagues as 
cosponsors to that legislation. And I am really happy to see 
that the Biden Administration committed and restored funding to 
the UNFPA after the prior Administration ended its support.
    The previous Administration was not the first GOP 
Administration to end support for UNFPA, despite its important 
work in supporting women and girls around the world. I was 
wondering if you might be able to speak to the consequences of 
the inconsistency of U.S. contributions to international 
organizations like the UNFPA, particularly in the context of 
the increased influence of authoritarian countries. And I was 
wondering, how do periodic halts in the U.S. UNFPA dues impact 
broader U.S. personnel and policymaking objectives?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you, Representative Houlahan, and 
thank you, again, to Congress for your support for U.N. 
institutions and for these important efforts.
    As you know, we have been strongly supportive of the UNFPA, 
as well as ensuring that women, girls, and gender issues are 
clearly addressed throughout the U.N. system, whether that is 
in UNICEF, in UNFPA, in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and in 
other organizations. Because we believe that women's rights are 
human rights and women's development is global development. So 
we appreciate very much your support.
    We believe that the U.S. has enduring and long-term 
interests in international institutions and the multilateral 
system. And we appreciate very much this committee's support 
for continuing and long-term support for the U.N. because we 
believe that when we are present--and we have seen that when we 
are present, that the U.S. can and does lead in making policy 
and ensuring that U.S. values are embedded in U.N. policies and 
in U.N. institutions. When we are not present, there are 
authoritarian States who fill that vacuum. And that is not in 
our interests, not in our security interests, not in our 
national interests, not in our economic interests. So we think 
it is important for us to be present, and it is important for 
us to be leading.
    Ms. Houlahan. Thank you. I appreciate that, and I, of 
course, agree.
    My second question has to do with STEM and technology and 
that general space and about the status of a new technology 
that I understand is under development.
    You mentioned in your opening statements the importance of 
technology-based solutions to complement your office's 
multilateral engagement. And, as an engineer and STEM advocate 
myself, I am really interested in learning more about this 
initiative and about the potential for customized data bases 
and analytical tools that support negotiations, multilateral 
elections, and American citizen engagement and employment, 
which is from your opening statement.
    Could you elaborate on the technological improvements that 
you referenced, and what is the status and timeline? And how 
would this improve your office's mission and increase American 
citizens' engagement?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. Yes, we are working still at 
the very beginning stages. We have only just--I believe it was 
about 4 weeks ago--brought on the first staff members in our 
new office, IO/MSP, looking at how do we track elections, how 
do we track voting, how do we make sure that we have constant 
efforts to get that data in a format that is usable, not just 
for our Bureau but throughout the interagency so that we can 
better coordinate on elections, so that we can better 
coordinate on policies, and we can better coordinate on vote 
campaigns.
    So we are at the beginning stages of that. I would say our 
projected timeline to build out that office and build out that 
capability is over the next year to 18 months. And what we 
would like to do then is have that be a constant. So you will 
see in our budget request for Fiscal Year 2022 that we included 
a small allocation for that effort, and we believe that it is 
important for us to be able to build on that as we go forward. 
And so we hope to see that included in the future as well 
because we think it is important to be able to track this over 
time, which is something that we haven't done as consistently 
as we would like to.
    Ms. Houlahan. And, so with the final seconds of my time, 
that leads into my very last question. Other than the funding 
that you have requested, is there any other barriers or 
anything else that we can be doing to be helpful?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. We have a number of requests 
in our budget proposal for both personnel, as well as resources 
for that, and your support for those is very important to us.
    Ms. Houlahan. I appreciate your time, and I yield back, Mr. 
Chair.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Representative Houlahan.
    We will now go to Representative Tenney.
    Ms. Tenney. Thank you, Chairman Castro, and thank you for 
convening this meeting.
    Thank you also to our ranking member.
    When international organizations work effectively, and the 
United States is rightly their biggest supporter. There are far 
too many of these organizations that have lost sight of their 
intended missions, and some fail to even advance American 
interests, as many of these institutions, mainly U.N. entities, 
are increasingly being lead in staff by nationals of countries 
that are U.S. competitors and adversaries, particularly China 
and Russia. We not only need to strengthen U.S. leadership in 
these organizations but also ensure they are transparent, 
effective, and actually advance the causes of liberty in rules-
based order. This isn't anything new. I have worked at a 
foreign consulate, and this was something that, you know, is 
going to be around for a while, which brings me to my first 
question. Despite some success by the United States, the U.N. 
still lacks the appropriate levels of financial transparency in 
reporting on outcomes. Major donor States, including the United 
States lack access to reasonable--and reasonably detailed, 
reliable reports and information made available by these single 
country trust funds, as well as the outcomes and results 
stemming from United Nations' activities.
    How is the United States working to increase this 
transparency and getting these nations to reveal where they are 
being funded behind the scenes so we can actually get to who is 
really, you know, the money base behind them?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Representative Tenney, your questions 
are very important because we agree a hundred percent that 
transparency and being able to understand how effective the 
U.N. is, what they are spending the money on and what the 
outcomes are, is really, really important. It is crucial for 
the U.S. taxpayer to understand that, for our contributions, 
but it is also crucial for us to understand it globally.
    So one of the things that we have been doing is working 
very hard in each individual organization to make sure that we 
are placing competent, well-qualified folks in the 
administrative structures who are pushing for that 
transparency.
    So, for example, we just placed the Deputy Director General 
for IOM, the International Organization for Migration, to which 
we are the largest voluntary contributor, an American citizen 
who has long experience in that area in the new DG spot for 
Administration so that we can better track, not just the input 
of our----
    Ms. Tenney. Can I just reclaim my time for a second? How 
exactly are you tracking that, though? And what mechanisms are 
being put in place so we can actually track it other than just 
overseeing it and saying ``we are hoping you comply''? I mean, 
is there actually some type of transactional investigation that 
we are doing to make sure that they report? And I am curious 
about that. Just briefly, if you would, because I have another 
important question.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Absolutely. Each U.N. organization is 
required to submit annual reports. Some of them are much better 
and more transparent than others. And we are pushing for 
greater level of transparency in all of those reports so that 
we can track this stuff better.
    Ms. Tenney. Is there a system in place so we can verify 
those reports so that we know that what they are actually 
submitting is actually accurate? Is there like a way that we 
can do that?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Each agency has its own Office of 
Investigations if we believe there is, you know, malfeasance or 
something going on. But, as I said, part of what we are doing 
is making sure that the personnel who are providing those 
reports have the integrity and the qualifications to make sure 
that there are quality reports coming out that we can trust.
    Ms. Tenney. Great. Thank you.
    And now I just wanted to bring up Ranking Member McCaul has 
introduced legislation that would codify the Office of 
Multilateral Strategy and Personnel, otherwise known as MSP. 
That bill, the United Nations Transparency and Accountability 
Act, would establish clear duties for the Office and empower 
the head of MSP to coordinate all nominations for election to 
the U.N. system. It would also require an increase in JPO slots 
of not less than 50 percent, ensuring Americans have the same 
access to U.N. employment as other countries.
    What is the IO Bureau's position on RM McCall's, Ranking 
Member McCall's, proposal? Would this legislation assist you in 
your ongoing efforts at State?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. We have seen the legislation 
from Representative McCall, and we look forward to continued 
discussions with this committee and with his office on that. 
Many elements of the draft legislation are already underway, 
including, as you noted, the establishment of the Office of 
Multilateral Strategy and Personnel. And we have appreciated 
the frequent opportunities to talk with his staff and staff of 
this committee about this evolving effort. We think that 
anything that supports U.S. involvement in U.N. institutions is 
helpful. Thank you.
    Ms. Tenney. So do you think that you can get to the 50 
percent or any aspect of that in the legislation?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. We would hope to see the funding for 
that as we go forward.
    Ms. Tenney. OK. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, and I 
yield back.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Representative. All right.
    That is all. I thank everybody so far for first-round 
questions. We will go through for any quick second-round 
questions.
    Members, if you have second-round questions, please let us 
know. Don't feel like you have to ask a question. But, if you 
have got one, we will go through right now for a quick second 
round.
    All right. I wanted to start with myself. I have got one 
more question and wanted to ask you about the election for the 
International Labor Organization. In March 2022, the 
International Labor Organization will elect its new Director 
General after the retirement of Guy Ryder from the United 
Kingdom. There are candidates from Australia, Togo, South 
Africa, France, and South Korea. And the ILO plays a key role 
in setting international labor standards. And the United 
States, of course, has strong interests in front of that body.
    What are the State Department's priorities at the ILO, and 
how does that align with your strategy for these upcoming 
elections? And what are you going to do to ensure that the 
State Department has a coordinated strategy with other 
organizations, especially the Department of Labor, and with 
labor unions and other civil society groups to approach this 
election?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. We agree that this is a 
critical election, and we have been working already with the 
Department of Labor and with others, both in the private sector 
as well as in the union movement to make sure that we are 
giving everybody an opportunity to interview each of the 
candidates. I met just yesterday with the ROK candidate. I have 
met with the French and the Australian candidate and look 
forward next month to meeting with the Togolese candidate. And 
we are working hard to make sure that they get around.
    We are also pleased that there is going to be more 
transparency in this election and that there is going to be a 
panel discussion that will be live and open to everybody on the 
internet to see those candidates give their vision for the ILO. 
But we will be coordinating the U.S. Government's voting. And 
we will be working to make sure that we are working with the 
labor unions and the private sector representatives on this 
election as it goes forward.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you.
    I will go now to Ranking Member Malliotakis.
    Ms. Malliotakis. As we discussed earlier, the United States 
is the largest financial contributor to the United Nations, 
paying roughly one-quarter of both the regular and peacekeeping 
budgets.
    My first question is, do you believe our influence in the 
United Nations system reflects our financial contributions? And 
second part of that question is, despite some success by the 
United States, the U.N. still lacks the appropriate levels of 
financial transparency in reporting on outcomes. Major donor 
States, including the United States, lack access to reasonably 
detailed, viable information on the use of funding made 
available through single country trust funds, as well as the 
outcomes and results stemming from the United Nations' 
activities. How can we as Congress ensure that we are working 
to increase this transparency? Do you have any suggestions 
there?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you. We agree that the level of 
transparency on single country trust funds needs to be much 
improved. We are concerned about these trust funds, and we were 
concerned that some countries, in particular the People's 
Republic of China, have been using them to push their own 
agendas and their own single nation foreign policy agendas. 
This is particularly true in the case of the Belt and Road 
Initiative and the newly launched GDI, the Global Development 
Initiative.
    We have worked with U.N. agencies to which these trust 
funds have been aimed, including the U.N. Development Program 
and UNICEF in particular, to push for greater transparency of 
how those funds are being used both in their programmatic 
documents and in their outcome documents and reporting. We will 
continue to do that, and we are committed to making sure that 
that is the case.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Any suggestions on what Congress can do to 
just push for more accountability and transparency when it 
comes to moneys that are being put into any of these, any of 
these international organizations to measure the metrics but 
also to ensure that it is being used properly?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. I have to say, Madam Representative, 
that one of the best things that Congress has enabled us to do 
is set up this IO/MSP Office because we are very focused on 
data analytics as part of this office. And your continuing 
support for us to be able to have that Data Analytics Unit 
established and grow will allow us to have greater transparency 
and is really, really important as we go forward because we 
have to have modern data-capturing techniques in order to make 
sure that we are tracking this stuff. And we agree with you 
that transparency is absolutely critical.
    Ms. Malliotakis. And, if these organizations aren't being 
transparent, how are you doing these analytics?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. One of the things that we are able to do 
because we are the largest contributor in many cases, both 
voluntary and assessed funding, to these organizations is to go 
in and actually demand that transparency from them, to ask for 
reporting, and to make sure that that is coming to us in a 
regularized fashion. And we have been doing that.
    It is not as consistent as we would like across the board, 
and so this is something that that office will also be able to 
track is to say, where are we not getting that kind of 
reporting so that we can make sure that we are able to track?
    Ms. Malliotakis. Have you to date identified any disturbing 
misuse of funds?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. I apologize. I didn't hear the question.
    Ms. Malliotakis. To date, has this analytics department 
been able to identify any particular misuse of fund?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. As we are just setting up the office--we 
only hired the first people about 6 weeks ago--we have not yet 
been able to do that reporting, but we look forward to being 
able to do a better job of tracking that kind of issue.
    There have been reports issued by Offices of Inspectors 
General across the U.N. system.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Sure.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. And when those reports come out, we do 
investigate those.
    Ms. Malliotakis. OK. And when do you expect your initial 
reports to be disseminated?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. We hope to be able to have this unit 
within the Office of IO/MSP up and fully functional within the 
next year. We are just getting started, and we have to build 
out the data bases for tracking before we are able to do that.
    Ms. Malliotakis. What do you think may be some of your 
priorities, once it is up and running, where will you be 
focusing most of your attention, a particular organization or 
just----
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. We will be focusing our attention in 
large part in the areas where we are the single largest 
contributor as priorities at the first go, but then also in 
organizations where we haven't had the level of transparency 
that we would like, and then, also, on elections because this 
office will also be building out election-tracking devices, and 
we think that that is critically important because, if you do 
not have the right people in place, you know, you are not going 
to get the kind of transparency you want.
    Ms. Malliotakis. Thank you.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, ranking member.
    We will go now to Vice Chair Jacobs.
    Ms. Jacobs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing us a 
second round. We know that international organizations are 
incredibly diverse in terms of the topics and regions that they 
touch. The U.S. agencies and even parts of the State Department 
that deal with them stretch across the entire government.
    For instance, according to a recent CSIS report, 23 
different parts of the U.S. Government provide funding to 
different IOs. And in certain circumstances, those overlap even 
within the same IOs, such as both USAID and Treasury, provide 
staff to the World Bank and OECD risk-use funding from five 
different agencies.
    So this, obviously, seems like a huge challenge in 
interagency coordination. What kind of interagency-coordinating 
mechanism exists to ensure our policies are synchronized with a 
whole-of-government strategy? And, if one does not exist, do 
you think there should be one?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Thank you very much.
    It is a diverse and broad funding base, but also a diverse 
and broad policy base. So the Bureau of International 
Organization Affairs in the State Department has the lead on 
international organizations and multilateral affairs throughout 
the entire U.S. Government, and we regularly convene in 
conjunction with our colleagues at the NSC, IPCs, interagency 
policy committees, to discuss policies but also to discuss 
coordination on these efforts.
    When it comes to elections and appointments, we have the 
lead, and our office--this new office that we have set up is 
enabling us to have the resources and the personnel to do that 
in a much more rigorous and coordinated fashion across the 
government within the State Department and across the 
interagency, and we are committed to continuing that effort.
    Ms. Jacobs. Well, thank you. And I want to talk about this 
Office of Multilateral Strategy. I know we talked about it in 
the last question, and you just mentioned it.
    Moving forward, how will IO and the new office coordinate 
with regional and functional bureaus that handle specific IOs 
that fall within those regional or functional bureaus' 
jurisdictions? Will each Bureau have a person responsible for 
coordinating with IO on strategy?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. So I will take one example. Our 
Economics Bureau works very closely with the OSCE, and there is 
a person who is designated in that office with whom we 
coordinate on OSCE policy, but also on personnel. So we have a 
very tight coordination effort already in that instance.
    In other areas, it has been less tight, and we are working 
to tighten that up.
    Ms. Jacobs. OK. Well, I will look forward to seeing 
progress on that tightening.
    I want to also ask a little bit about down-ballot races. I 
know we have talked about some of the marquis races coming up, 
like ITU, ILO, but where are there down-ballot races, and what 
are you doing to prepare for those? I know, for instance, ITU 
has several down-ballot races in addition to the Secretary 
General one. And what are you doing, and what more can be done, 
and do you have the authorities and resources you need to be 
able to do that?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Yes. It is very important, because not 
only the leadership of these organizations but the No. 2, 
three, fours, and the folks who are in charge of Administration 
are very, very important. So one of the things that we have 
done is set up a tracking table, which we are then going to put 
into our data bases as we go forward, to look not only at the 
leadership-level races, but down into the deputy--deputy 
director general level and then the assistant deputy director 
general level, so that we are looking across these 
organizations.
    Right now, we are still building that out, but we are 
hopeful that we will be able to track that trend over time. 
That will give us greater granularity so that we cannot only 
track these elections but then work ahead of time to put good 
candidates in place, whether Americans or from like-minded 
countries and partners.
    Ms. Jacobs. Wonderful. Well, thank you again so much.
    Mr. Chair, I will give you 1 minute and 15 seconds back.
    Mr. Castro. Thanks.
    We will go to Mr. Issa.
    Mr. Issa. I will take the minute.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    When we left off on the first round, I had asked about 
tools available or that you felt you could use going forward to 
protect Taiwan from this ongoing--Taiwan and the other 
neighbors from this ongoing aggression. Do you believe that the 
United Nations has a role? And, if so, how would you begin the 
process of getting them to provide some pushback to China's 
continued aggression?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. I think the U.N. has a role in any case 
where there is peace and security at stake, and I think that it 
is important for the U.N. to speak out, and we have urged them 
to speak out, for instance, where there are examples of gross 
human rights abuses perpetrated by the People's Republic of 
China, whether that is in Tibet, whether that is in Hong Kong, 
or whether that is in Xinjiang.
    We have also urged the U.N. to include Taiwan, where 
appropriate, in--bring its expertise and its experience to 
bear, so on things like supply chains, on things like 
international civil aviation safety, on disease prevention. 
They did a great job, especially at the beginning of the COVID 
pandemic, not only in identifying the DNA sequencing but also 
developing their own vaccine and monitoring and keeping their 
population safe.
    So we need to continue to push the U.N. to include them, 
include their expertise, but also to address where the People's 
Republic of China is not taking into account international 
safety and security in its own policies.
    Mr. Issa. OK. And then the last part, there has been a lot 
of discussion, always will be, about how the U.N. gets--
interfaces with such programs, as you said, of the Chinese 
initiative, Belt and Road. We have a number of agencies--the 
Trade Development Agency, obviously USAID--that give 
essentially free grants outside the U.N. to help in development 
while China basically does its development as a profit center, 
as a tool of expanding their influence, and then leverages the 
United Nations' funding and personnel for that agenda.
    How are you specifically going to be able to stop China 
from essentially both profiteering in their port takeovers and 
so on, but most specifically from using U.N. resources to 
further leverage their already robust program under Belt and 
Road?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Yes. This is an area where we have 
longstanding and I think strong bipartisan agreement that we 
need to do everything we can to push back on the Chinese effort 
to undermine international institutions, international norms 
through using these kind of programs like the Belt and Road----
    Mr. Issa. Ambassador, I just want to interrupt to----
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Yes, please.
    Mr. Issa [continuing]. Steer the question a little bit. The 
last Administration, for 4 years, failed in that effort, so I 
agree that it has been multiparty; it has been multi-
Presidential. I was actually looking at what new initiatives 
could be taken since, you know, in the last Administration, 
there was talk about it, certainly a lot of robust talk about 
it, but the record of accomplishment--as a Republican and a 
Trump supporter--the record of accomplishment isn't there.
    So what can we do that didn't work last time because 
obviously this is still an ongoing problem?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Part of what we are working on is 
combining with our--the DFC, the Development Finance 
Corporation, and other U.S. Government institutions to put 
forward a proactive and positive agenda that pushes forward 
American values because it is hard to fight something with 
nothing.
    We think it is important that we show up, that we compete, 
and that we work with developing countries to make sure that 
they have sound investments that benefit them and that benefit 
us, not that just benefit China, and we will continue to do 
that.
    Mr. Issa. Thank you.
    And, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back my 15 seconds. Thank 
you.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Mr. Issa.
    We will go now to Representative Tenney.
    Ms. Tenney. Thank you, and thank you for staying longer. 
And this is actually similar to the question that Mr. Issa had. 
And obviously we know that China engages in attempts to rewrite 
the international order to drive their agenda in various ways 
that--even cited by Mr. Issa. You know, one of my concerns is 
that China steals anywhere from $350 billion to $400 billion in 
intellectual property.
    And, in order to facilitate that, they try to change the 
rules at the World Intellectual Property Organization, they try 
to exclude Taiwan from the World Health Organization, and even 
the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is 
interesting obviously for Taiwan, being a country that is 
surrounded by water.
    But, more to Mr. Issa's point--and I agree with him. You 
know, we haven't really been effective at countering China. 
What can we do now, now that we know it is in place--and I 
think the Administration is sort of projecting to China that 
you are just a competitor. Isn't it--shouldn't we be taking 
China more seriously than just a competitor, they are really a 
world hegemony who wants to take over with their hundred-year 
strategy, their Belt and Road Initiative, and, as Mr. Issa 
cited, you know, profiting off of the use of our money, almost 
leveraging our money that we give so much to the U.N.?
    How do we counter that, and how do we hold them 
accountable, and what--like, real quickly, what strategies does 
the Administration have and viewing them as not just a 
competitor but a world dominator that is really going to have 
negative implications for the world, not just the United States 
going forward?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. We take very seriously not just the 
competition piece but also the potential for very aggressive 
competition that could lead into very bad situations in the 
future. So we are working very hard, one, to make sure that 
security--our security is strong; two, that our allies and 
their security is strong.
    But, also, really working at how do we keep the PRC's 
efforts, which I equate to kind of the tide over time. It is 
not a big tidal wave. It is the gradual undermining of the 
foundations upon which these institutions are built, which have 
served our interests and served global peace and security 
interests over the last 70, 80 years, that we need to preserve 
and we need to fight for.
    So that means we need to be present. It means that we need 
to be looking at what they are doing on language, but also 
really scrutinizing and shining a light on what they are doing 
on funding. So we agree with you.
    Ms. Tenney. Uh-huh.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Light is something that they do not want 
on what they are doing, and we need to be very public about 
shining a light on what they are doing and why they are doing 
it so that other countries understand why it is not in their 
interests to go down this road.
    Ms. Tenney. Great. Thank you for that, and I appreciate it. 
And, other than just--obviously shining a light, transparency, 
all those things are important. What type of rule changes can 
we make to really emphasize and project that we aren't fooling 
around, you know, we are serious, we want to make sure they 
understand that we are not going to accept their dominance and 
their attempt to dominate other countries?
    So what can we do in terms of rule changes within your 
organization to really put, you know, some pressure on them 
strategically and also to make sure that not just the United 
States but other countries around the world aren't leveraged 
and in such a vulnerable position, because they have great 
economic strength? They use, you know, basically a kind of 
economic espionage the way that they go through to these 
countries and manipulate them.
    What can we do to specifically in terms of rule changes at 
your level to make this not just shining a light, not just 
transparent, but really, you know, digging in and having some 
real guardrails for them?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. Guardrails is the right word. We need to 
make sure that the rules of the road in international 
organizations that have sustained global peace for generations 
are maintained and sustained. That is first and foremost.
    Second, the transparency issues that you have already--we 
have already discussed.
    And, third, we need to make sure that we are present, we 
are leading, and that we are working very strongly with not 
only our traditional allies but with countries which have been, 
unfortunately, vulnerable to exploitation, because they are not 
in the strongest positions.
    Ms. Tenney. And I agree. When you say ``present,'' do you 
mean, you know, just basically making sure that we are in 
regions where we have a stake or where other countries have a 
stake or where China is over--exceeding its norms, exceeding 
our view of international norms--for example, moving into 
Afghanistan or Serbia and other areas to try to, you know, take 
over resources there?
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. It is being present not only regionally 
but also in international institutions.
    Ms. Tenney. OK.
    Ms. Barks-Ruggles. For example, in UNESCO, where the ethics 
of artificial intelligence norms are being set up right now, we 
are not present. If we were present, we would have a voice at 
that table.
    We need to be present across the board to make sure that we 
are influencing those efforts, not only for now but for the 
future.
    Ms. Tenney. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for the 
extra time.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Mr. Castro. Thank you, Representative Tenney.
    And that concludes our testimony and our questions, and I 
want to make closing remarks in just a second.
    But, before I do, I just want to give a shout-out to one of 
our staff members, Zach Keck, who is going to be leaving us to 
go to the Department of Defense. He has done incredible work 
with us for a few years.
    I just want to say thank you, Zach, for all of your work.
    And I would like to thank everyone again for joining us for 
this subcommittee hearing. And one of the reasons that we have 
to remain engaged, Ambassador--as you know, consistent with 
your testimony, one of the reasons we have to remain engaged in 
international organizations is to set global standards around a 
host of issues, including human rights.
    We were reminded of this in recent weeks after Chinese 
tennis star Peng Shuai went missing after accusing a close ally 
of Xi Jinping of sexually assaulting her. After weeks of outcry 
about her whereabouts, the PRC media released an email to WTA 
chairman and CEO, Steve Simon, claiming to be from Peng, which 
many suspect is of dubious authenticity.
    We are best able to combat human rights abuses, including 
by the PRC, by engaging in international organizations and 
setting global standards around issues like human rights and 
many other issues as well. And that is why this work matters.
    The members of the subcommittee, no doubt, will reflect on 
all the testimony we heard today as we pursue our legislative 
and oversight responsibilities on the United States' engagement 
with the United Nations and other international organizations, 
and I am happy to see that there is strong bipartisan support 
for the State Department's work to advance our influence within 
the United Nations.
    There is a lot Congress can do, including providing the 
Department with the authorities and funding needed to do this 
great work. But, by far, the most immediate thing that Congress 
and, more specifically, the U.S. Senate can do is to quickly 
confirm Ambassador Michele Sison to be the Assistant Secretary 
of State for International Organization Affairs.
    It has been 5 months since her hearing at the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee, but the actions of Senator Ted 
Cruz, from my home State of Texas, and Senator Josh Hawley have 
held up her confirmation.
    This unreasonable blockade has also held up a number of 
other nominees who have cleared the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee, including Captain ``Sully'' Sullenberger to the 
International Civil Aviation Organization, Bruce Turner to the 
Conference on Disarmament, Jack Markell to the Organization for 
Economic Cooperation and Development, Laura Holgate to the 
Vienna office of the United Nations and the IAEA, Sheba Crocker 
to the Geneva office of the United Nations, Lisa Carty to the 
U.N.'s Economic and Social Council, Chris Lu to the U.N.--
United Nations for management--management and reform, and 
Julianne Smith to NATO.
    I know my counterparts in the Senate, Democrats and 
Republicans both, share my frustration at the actions of their 
colleagues. Senators Cruz' and Hawley's continued actions have 
left a vacuum in U.S. influence abroad and are hurting our 
foreign policy. I hope they realize the serious consequences of 
their actions and allow for these nominees to be voted on as 
soon as possible.
    Thank you all.
    And, with that, this hearing is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:16 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                APPENDIX

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


            RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
            
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                                 [all]