[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 80 (Thursday, June 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
U.N. REFORM
(Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, today we will debate the U.N. Reform
Act, and I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde)
for making this a priority. We are trying to bring change to an
organization that has grown fat, happy, and arrogant off of American
taxpayer dollars.
Over the past several years, we have watched the oil-for-food
scandal, and numerous scandals listed here on this poster, accounting
errors, and then on top of this, in 2005, the U.N. asked for a $400
million budget increase.
Countries like Libya, Sudan, and Cuba are on the U.N. Human Rights
Commission, and we, the taxpayers, are paying for this.
The United States sends more than $400 million a year to the U.N. We
spend billions of dollars in direct aid and military aid, and no one
can say we are not doing our fair share. Requiring the U.N. to try and
find spending priorities is clearly not a bad thing; it is a good
thing. Neither is asking them to cut spending. If they are not using
our money wisely, we should not be sending as much.
Mr. Speaker, I hope the House will overwhelmingly support this
important and overdue legislation.
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