[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            REFORM THE U.N.

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the American people provide 22 percent of the 
U.N.'s budget, but the American people cannot impact what happens at 
the U.N.
  For instance, the American people have no ability to force 
accountability in the billions stolen from the Oil-for-Food program. 
The American people have no way of objecting to the appointing of 
countries like Syria, Libya, North Korea and Cuba to the Human Rights 
Commission. The American people have no way of pressuring Kofi Annan to 
resign or force prosecutions of peacekeepers who raped the very people 
they were ordered to protect.
  Today, the U.N. operates with little or no oversight from its member 
states. We have an opportunity to change that with H.R. 2745, which 
gives the American people the leveraging tool. By conditioning 50 
percent of our U.N. dues to a series of reforms, the legislation would 
finally give the American people a voice on things like religious 
freedom, political oppression and abuses of power that have plagued the 
U.N. since its earliest days.
  I urge support.

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