[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 54 (Thursday, April 3, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E676]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACT OF 2003

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 3, 2003

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr Speaker, I rise today to introduce a critical and 
comprehensive initiative--the Uniited States International Leadership 
Act of 2003--aimed at strengthening American leadership at the United 
Nations and at other international organizations.
  Mr. Speaker, let me first express my sincere gratitude to the bill's 
cosponsor, the distinguished Chairman of the Rules Committee, and a 
dear friend from my home state of California, Congressman David Dreier.
  Many of the ideas for our bill came from a Council on Foreign 
Relations report that Chairman Dreier co-authored last year with our 
former International Relations Committee Chairman, Lee Hamilton.
  The report, ``Enhancing U.S. Leadership at the United Nations,'' 
focused attention on a critical problem in American foreign policy--our 
inability consistently to promote our interests and values in 
multilateral fora such as the UN. It also offered concrete steps to 
rebuild our influence.
  The United States International Leadership Act builds on the Dreier-
Hamilton report and is designed to give our diplomats the tools they 
need to ensure that America once again punches at its weight in the UN.
  Specifically the bill:
  Creates a Democracy Caucus at the UN to encourage other democracies 
to join us in promoting positions at the UN that support freedom and 
oppose tyranny and hatred.
  Requires the State Department to pay high level visits each year to 
key countries to make sure that their leaders understand that support 
for our positions at the UN is critical to their overall relationship 
with us.
  Directs the President to use U.S. influence to reform the criteria 
for leadership and membership at the UN bodies to ensure that rogue 
regimes and authoritarian governments cannot continue to thwart the 
noble purposes that each body was created to advance.
  Provides increased training to our Foreign Service Officers to help 
them develop the skills they need to conduct effective diplomacy at the 
UN and other multilateral organizations.
  Affords Foreign Service Officers--for the first time ever--an 
opportunity to advance their careers by undertaking assignments to 
represent the U.S. to the UN and to other multilateral institutions.
  Creates a new Office on Multilateral Negotiations to be headed by a 
Special Representative with the rank of ambassador who has the 
responsibility to make sure that we have the resources and the 
strategies needed to prevail in each critical negotiation and decision 
we face at the UN and in other multilateral negotiations.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an undeniable fact of life that our participation 
in the UN and other international organizations is critical to 
achieving our foreign policy goals. Right now the UN is helping us to 
advance our war against terrorism by obligating all countries to freeze 
the assets of terrorist groups. UN treaties and inspectors are also an 
important part of our effort to prevent the proliferation of chemical, 
biological, and nuclear weapons. UN agencies are also critical in 
spearheading the fight to combat the ravages of infectious diseases 
such as HIV/AIDS and now the terrifying new sickness, SARS (severe 
acute respiratory syndrome).
  Despite these and many other examples of critical benefits we obtain 
from our engagement at the UN, the U.S. has often been blocked in its 
attempts to take action in these institutions to advance its goals and 
objective. A recent example is the United Nations Human Rights 
Commission, where Libya--a gross human rights violator--was elected 
chairman, and the United States temporarily lost a seat. Another was 
the UN's World Conference Against Racism, where rogue regimes 
successfully hijacked a critical forum on race and turned it into an 
ugly anti-Israeli and anti-American circus.
  A big part of the problem is that decisions at many international 
organizations, including membership and leadership, are made by 
regional groups where there is intensive cooperation by repressive 
regimes. The International Leadership Act, by building a Democracy 
Caucus and by developing expertise in the United States Government in 
the area of multilateral diplomacy, represents the beginning of what 
will be a long effort to rationalize and strengthen the UN, and other 
international organizations, by systematically reducing the leverage of 
repressive regimes and ensure that these organizations serve rather 
than thwart U.S. national interests.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my sincere hope that this measure will be quickly 
enacted and signed by the President, so that we can begin this critical 
project.

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