[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other 
     departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

  Mr. PAYNE. I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment 
would prohibit any United States assistance to a country that opposed 
the position of the United States in the United Nations. If passed 
tomorrow, this amendment would prohibit assistance to over 130 
countries including Cote D'Ivoire, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and 
Jordan. (It prohibits assistance to countries whose recorded votes at 
the UN were the same as the United States less than 50 percent of the 
time.
  This amendment does not take into account the voting realities of the 
UN. It only focuses on recorded votes or non-consensus issues. But the 
fact is, similar to the workings our own Senate, a significant amount 
of votes--or consensus resolutions--are adopted by the UN. According to 
the State Department's Voting Practices in the United Nations, when 
consensus resolutions are factored in as votes identical to those of 
the United States, average overall General Assembly voting coincidence 
of all UN members with the United States in 2009 was 84.3%. So, in 
reality, most member states are agreeing with the position of the 
United States.
  Finally, if the logic of this bill was utilized in our own Congress, 
how could we ever reach bipartisan agreement? Because a Member does not 
support your bill, would that mean you would never work with them on 
anything again? Or, if the Texas delegation to the House voted against 
a transportation appropriation, should they receive no money to build 
roads?
  I urge my colleagues to vote NO on this amendment.

              Voting Practices in the United Nations 2009

 (Report to Congress submitted pursuant to Public Laws 101-246 and 108-
                          447, Mar. 31, 2010.)

                            I: Introduction

       This publication is the 27th annual Report to the Congress 
     on Voting Practices at the United Nations. It is submitted in 
     accordance with Section 406 of Public Law 101-246. This law 
     provides, in relevant part:
       ``The Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of 
     the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the 
     Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a full and 
     complete annual report which assesses for the preceding 
     calendar year, with respect to each foreign country member of 
     the United Nations, the voting practices of the governments 
     of such countries at the United Nations, and which evaluates 
     General Assembly and Security Council actions and the 
     responsiveness of those governments to United States policy 
     on issues of special importance to the United States.''
       This report reviews voting practices in the UN Security 
     Council and General Assembly (UNGA) in calendar year 2009 and 
     presents data in a variety of formats. All Security Council 
     resolutions for the entire year are described, and voting on 
     them is tabulated (Section II). The report also statistically 
     measures the overall voting of UN member states at the 64th 
     General Assembly in the autumn of 2009 in comparison with the 
     U.S. voting record (Section III). It also lists and describes 
     UNGA resolutions selected as particularly important to U.S. 
     interests, again with tables for regional and political 
     groupings (Section IV). It then presents all data by country 
     (Section V). Finally, an annex is included to present the 
     voting patterns on General Assembly resolutions relating to 
     Israel and opposed by the United States.
       The Security Council and the General Assembly deal with a 
     full spectrum of issues--including threats to peace and 
     security, disarmament, economic and social development, 
     humanitarian relief, and human rights--that are considered 
     critical to U.S. interests. A country's behavior at the 
     United Nations is always relevant to its bilateral 
     relationship. Nevertheless, a country's voting record in the 
     United Nations is only one dimension of its relations with 
     the United States. Bilateral economic, strategic, and 
     political issues are at times more directly important to U.S. 
     interests.


               VoTING COINCIDENCE WITH THE UNITED STATES

       On non-consensus issues, i.e., those on which a vote was 
     taken, the average overall General Assembly voting 
     coincidence of all UN members with the United States in 2009 
     was 39 percent, up significantly from 2008, when it was 25.6 
     percent, and more than twice the figure from 2007 (18.3 
     percent).
       When consensus resolutions are factored in as votes 
     identical to those of the United States, a much higher 
     measure of agreement with U.S. positions is reached--84.3 
     percent in 2009. (See Section III--General Assembly--Overall 
     Votes for additional comparisons.)


                         FORMAT AND METHODOLOGY

       The format and presentation of this report are consistent 
     with provisions of Public Law 101-246 as amended by Public 
     Law 108-447, and the methodology employed is the same as that 
     used since the report's inception.
       The tables in this report provide a measurement of the 
     voting coincidence of UN member countries with the United 
     States. However, readers are cautioned about interpreting 
     voting coincidence percentages. In Section III (General 
     Assembly Overall Votes), Section IV (General Assembly 
     Important Votes and Consensus Actions), and the Annex, the 
     percentages in the last column of the tables, under ``votes 
     only,'' are calculated using only votes on which both the 
     United States and the other country in question voted Yes or 
     No; not included are those instances when either state 
     abstained or was absent. Abstentions and absences are often 
     difficult to interpret, but they make a mathematical 
     difference, sometimes significant, in the percentage results. 
     The inclusion of the number of abstentions and absences in 
     the tables of this report enables the reader to consider them 
     in calculating voting coincidence percentages.
       The percentages in the second-to-last column of the tables, 
     under ``including consensus,'' offer another perspective on 
     General Assembly activity. These figures, by presenting the 
     percentage of voting coincidence with the United States after 
     including consensus resolutions as additional identical 
     votes, more accurately reflect the extent of cooperation and 
     agreement in the General Assembly. Since not all states are 
     equally active at the United Nations, the report credits to 
     each country a portion of the 184 consensus resolutions based 
     on its participation in the 84 recorded Plenary votes. Each 
     country's participation rate was calculated by dividing the 
     number of Yes/No/Abstain votes it cast in the Plenary (i.e., 
     the number of times it was not absent) by the total number of 
     Plenary votes). However, this calculation assumes, for want 
     of an attendance record, that all countries were present or 
     absent for consensus resolutions in the same ratio as for 
     recorded votes.
       Questions about this report may be directed to the Bureau 
     of International Organization Affairs in the Department of 
     State.

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