[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 107 (Friday, July 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2004 AND 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. WALLY HERGER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 15, 2003

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1950) to 
     authorize appropriations for the Department of State for the 
     fiscal years 2004 and 2005, to authorize appropriations under 
     the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act of 
     1961 for security assistance for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, 
     and for other purposes:

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Chairman, concerning Rollcall Vote 108-364, On 
Agreeing to the Amendment of Representative Ron Paul of Texas to H.R. 
1950, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2003: Although I was 
correctly recorded as voting against the passage of this amendment, 
which eventually failed by an overwhelming vote of 74 to 350, I would 
like the Congressional Record to reflect that my ``No'' vote was in 
error, and I would have liked to have voted ``Aye'' on this provision.
  Specifically, Representative Paul's amendment would have prohibited 
funds authorized under H.R. 1950 to be used to pay any U.S. 
contribution to the United Nations or any affiliated agency of the 
United Nations. Like many, I firmly believe evidence of the need for a 
dramatic reevaluation of current U.N. policy is glaring. Over the 
years, the United States has been a host nation to the U.N., 
headquartered in New York City, and has contributed greatly to the 
funding for the organization, including the enormous cost to the 
American taxpayer of deploying our military on the numerous U.N. 
peacekeeping missions worldwide, amounting to roughly one-quarter of 
the peacekeeping expenses of the 191-member body. However, recent 
events surrounding the ousting of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime in 
Iraq, and the inability of the U.N. to enforce its own Security Council 
resolutions, has renewed questions of the legitimacy of this body, as 
well as the necessity and level of U.S. participation in its funding 
and daily activities.
  I would also like to note that I have cosponsored a number of pieces 
of legislation in the House of Representatives, which, I believe, 
address these questions more thoroughly. While I do not object to the 
U.N.'s founding objectives of peace through positive discussions and 
diplomacy, the organization has clearly failed in this charter mission. 
As it currently exists, the United Nations merely provides a weighted 
platform to non-democratic and anti-American nations. Perhaps a more 
constructive and strategically important avenue would be to pursue an 
entirely new federation of nations, limiting voting membership to 
democratic countries that share our values and goals.
  For these reasons, I have cosponsored H.R. 1146, introduced by 
Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), which calls on the U.S. to withdraw 
from the United Nations entirely. I have also cosponsored two related 
bills, which would impact our involvement in the U.N. in lesser ways. 
H.R. 800 would provide for the withholding of United States 
contributions to any U.N. commission, organization, or affiliated 
agency that is chaired or presided over by a country that has 
repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism. H. 
Con. Res. 116 takes this bill a step further, issuing a sense of 
Congress that the United States should withhold all payments to the 
U.N. until its bylaws are amended to prevent countries whose leaders 
are not democratically elected from holding a position of authority 
within the U.N.

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