[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 62 (Thursday, May 18, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H3311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE U.S. IS NOT THE WORLD'S POLICEMAN

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I was pleased to learn earlier this week 
that the United Nations diplomats for the first time in 30 years, three 
decades, will finally reconsider the allocation of peacekeeping costs.
  Mr. Speaker, it is about time. Currently 30 countries pay 98 percent 
of the U.N.'s peacekeeping budget, while 158 countries pay only 2 
percent, regardless of their economic performance. In addition, it is 
the United States' share of nearly one-third of that cost of the United 
Nations peacekeeping overall budget that bothers most of us.
  Since 1973, when payment proportions were established, the economies 
of many of the member nations have improved tremendously. Now these 
nations can afford to pay their fair share, but unfortunately they just 
do not want to.
  Mr. Speaker, it is about time that the member nations pay their fair 
share of U.N. peacekeeping costs. The United States cannot afford nor 
should it be called upon to be the world's policeman and its banker.
  I yield back once and for all the unfair U.N. peacekeeping payment 
system that has punished the U.S. and our taxpayers for too long.

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