[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E3]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ``SAY `NO' TO UNESCO'' ACT

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                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 2003

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill expressing 
the sense of the Congress that the United States should not rejoin the 
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 
(UNESCO).
  Mr. Speaker, in 1984 President Ronald Reagan withdrew the United 
States from membership in that UNESCO, citing egregious financial mis-
management, blatant anti-Americanism, and UNESCO's general anti-freedom 
policies. President Reagan was correct in identifying UNESCO as an 
organization that does not act in America's interest, and he was 
correct in questioning why the United States should fund 25 percent of 
UNESCO's budget for that privilege.
  Those calling for the United States to rejoin UNESCO claim that the 
organization has undertaken fundamental reforms and therefore the 
United States should re-join. It is strange that in the 18 years since 
the United States left UNESCO, we only started reading about the 
beginnings of reform in the year 2000. Are we to believe that after 
nearly two decades of no change in UNESCO's way of mis-managing itself 
things have changed so much in just two years? Is it worth spending $60 
million per year on an organization with such a terrible history of 
waste, corruption, and anti-Americanism?
  Mr. Speaker, even if UNESCO has been ``reforming'' its finances over 
the past two years, its programmatic activities are still enough to 
cause great concern among those of us who value American sovereignty 
and honor our Constitution. Consider the following as a partial list of 
UNESCO's ongoing highly questionable activities:
  UNESCO meddles in the education affairs of its member-countries and 
has sought to construct a U.N.-based school curriculum for American 
schools.
  UNESCO has been fully supportive of the United Nations' Population 
Fund (UNFPA) in its assistance to China's brutal coercive population 
control program.
  UNESCO has designated 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves in the United States 
covering more than 70 million acres, without Congressional 
consultation.
  UNESCO effectively bypasses Congressional authority to manage federal 
lands, by establishing management policies without Congressional 
consultation of approval.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope all members of this body will join me in opposing 
renewed U.S. membership in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, 
and Cultural Organization by co-sponsoring this ``Say `No' to UNESCO'' 
act.

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