[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 27 (Friday, February 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1600-H1601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1540
            H.R. 7, THE NATIONAL SECURITY REVITALIZATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Zeliff). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Kim] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, as a new member of the 
International Relations Committee, in support of H.R. 7, the National 
Security Revitalization Act.
  Our committee has passed this legislation and it will be on the floor 
next week.
  For too long the United States has been paying too large a share of 
the military tab for United Nations peacekeeping missions. This, at a 
time when this Nation faces its own peacekeeping concerns on our 
neighborhood streets with the continued increase in violent crime.
  I believe it is time that we control in the wild spending of taxpayer 
dollars on questionable peacekeeping missions abroad.
  It is unacceptable to ask the American people to settle for less--
through cuts in Federal programs--while at the same time giving 
disproportionate huge handouts to the United Nations.
  Many Americans are being laid off by budget cuts and downsizing in 
both the public and private sectors while billions of dollars go to the 
U.N. bureaucracy.
  They must stop.
  That is why I am in full support of H.R. 7 which will bring an honest 
public accounting of actual U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping 
activities.
  Today the United Nations does not make a fair and full accounting of 
our inkind contributions.
  These millions of dollars of in-kind contributions that we have made 
are not credited against U.S. assessments.
  Some 90 countries around the world pay less than one-tenth of 1 
percent of U.N. peacekeeping costs while only 10 countries pay more 
than 1 percent of these costs.
  The United States pays 32 percent of those peacekeeping costs--32 
percent.
  That is 2\1/2\ times more than the next largest contributor to the 
United Nations, which is Japan, second highest at 12.5 percent. Out of 
186 nations, 160 of them pay less than a fraction of 1 percent. The 
United States pays 32 percent. And that's just what the United Nations 
gives us credit for.
  In addition, the United States is also paying added Department of 
Defense in-kind costs of more than $1.5 billion a year for related 
peacekeeping activities such as foreign troop transportation.
  We get no credit for these extra expenditures.
  H.R. 7 will require that the United States be credited for our own 
military expenditures as they relate to such peacekeeping operations. 
Every day the U.S. military is being called upon to support U.N. 
military operations.
  Most recently, the United States has been called on in Somalia, 
Rwanda, Iraq, Cambodia, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia.
  Requests for U.N. involvement throughout the world continue to 
increase.
  For example, just in the past couple of days the United States 
military has been sent again into Somalia to help protect and withdraw 
other U.N. peacekeepers.
  Once again, Uncle Sam to the rescue.
  But, if we were not there, most of these U.N. operations would 
collapse.
  H.R. 7 will accomplish two important goals:
  First, it will allow the U.S. Congress and the American people to 
understand how much the United States is actually contributing to 
support U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world.
  Second, it will provide for a more equitable cost sharing of the real 
cost for such actions which is something that I believe the American 
people expect and deserve.
  I would like to emphasize that this bill is not, an anti-United 
Nations, anti-peacekeeping measure.
  It does not tie the hands of the President in pursuing multilateral 
U.N. solutions, nor end the United Nation's ability to conduct peace 
activities.
  It does not cut off U.S. support for the United Nations.
  All that H.R. 7 does is simply allow Congress to be involved in a 
comprehensive, rational, decisionmaking process related to the 
resources expended in the U.N. peacekeeping mission of the United 
Nations.
  [[Page H1601]] Let us see all the costs and determine what we can and 
cannot afford.
  Congress has the constitutional power to control these costs and it 
should do so when it relates to using taxpayer dollars to finance 
foreign operations which have limited importance in relation to our own 
national security.
  H.R. 7 does not preclude other members of the United Nations from 
paying their fair share of United Nations operations that they deem to 
be important.
  What it does do is close the open-ended bank account the United 
Nations has at the U.S. Treasury.
  U.N. peacekeeping has overdrawn.
  The United States is the only superpower left, but it is not a nation 
with an unlimited budget.
  There are other wealthy nations that also have direct national 
interests in global peace and stability.
  Japan and Germany are two such nations.
  We ought to be encouraging them--strongly encouraging them--to become 
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
  That way, these two wealthy countries can justify carrying more of 
the U.N.'s financial burden.


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