[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12194]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               TIME FOR REAL REFORM AT THE UNITED NATIONS

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, last December we created an independent 
panel to simply come up with ways to make the United Nations more 
transparent and more effective. Today it is being reported that the 
panel's work is done, and their 174-page report will soon be made 
available to all of us. I am very interested to see what this 
bipartisan panel has to say about changing and reforming the United 
Nations.
  I understand from this report that its recommendations perhaps do not 
go far enough. It does criticize the U.N. for being too bureaucratic, 
but it hardly lays the blame where I think we all know it belongs, of 
course, to the Secretary General Kofi Annan. It squarely should be on 
his shoulders.
  Here is what has occurred at the U.N. under Mr. Annan's watch: We 
have had genocide in the Sudan; countries such as Cuba, Libya, and 
China are on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; kicking the United 
States off the U.N.'s Narcotic Trafficking Commission; claims of sexual 
harassment in the United Nations; an attempt to impose global gun 
control. The U.N. even thought about sending observers over here to 
assess and evaluate our election process here in the United States.
  It is noted also that our Supreme Court Justices are using a U.N. 
treaty to justify abolishing capital punishment for minors. And, of 
course, there is the infamous Oil For Food Program. This is a scandal. 
It is a program which has resulted in over $20 billion being stolen 
from those who need it in Iraq and which enriched the totalitarian 
regime of Saddam Hussein. And most recently, U.N. peacekeeping soldiers 
in the Congo have been discovered soliciting sex from local girls, some 
as young as 12 years old, in exchange for money and food.
  Mr. Speaker, too many times the United Nations has gone against 
American values. I happen to believe that the American people should 
not be required to pay for this organization unless there is a huge 
amount of reform and change. We are the biggest donor to the United 
Nations, contributing 22 percent of the regular operating budget and 
nearly 27 percent of the peacekeeping budget.
  How many American taxpayer dollars went to Saddam Hussein or are 
paying for immoral U.N. peacekeepers?
  Now more than ever we need to reassess our involvement with this 
troubled organization. This week we will debate two measures that have 
to do with the United Nations. First, we will be debating the Science, 
State, Justice and Commerce appropriations bill in which we propose to 
pay the United Nations over $400 million in our annual dues. I plan on 
speaking on this and perhaps introducing an amendment to make sure that 
none of these funds go to pay for new headquarters that Kofi Annan 
desires. This headquarters is estimated to cost $1.2 billion.
  I have previously introduced legislation to move the United Nations 
headquarters out of New York City and out of the United States 
altogether. I still believe, in the aftermath of all of these scandals 
and all of these corruptions and all of this anti-Americanism, and this 
massive waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars, that Turtle Bay is no longer an 
appropriate place for the United Nations. There are many other cities 
in Europe that perhaps could have the headquarters, such as Paris, 
France; Geneva, Switzerland; or Bonn, Germany that would be perfect 
hosts for the United Nations. We should give these countries the 
opportunity to have the United Nations. I just hope they do not plan on 
collecting for parking tickets from the diplomats who do not pay.
  Later this week we will also consider the Hyde proposal to enact 
serious and substantive reform at the United Nations. This bill appears 
to provide real reform with teeth, and I look forward to debating and 
discussing this measure.
  Last, Mr. Speaker, in other U.N. reform related news, hopefully this 
week John Bolton may finally get his up or down vote in the Senate. The 
President's choice to be Ambassador to the United Nations is the right 
man at the right time to shake up the U.N. establishment and provide 
real reform to the institution before it becomes even more obsolete and 
outdated.
  It is critically important that we enact these serious and 
substantive reforms, both for America and the rest of the world. As 
John Bolton once said, ``American leadership is critical to the success 
of the United Nations, an effective U.N., one that is true to the 
original intent of its charter's framers.''

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