[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14990]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             UNITED NATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we witnessed thugs, 
tyrants, and dictators from Russia, Iran, and Cuba speak before the 
General Assembly at the United Nations; and with straight faces, each 
claimed to be defenders of peace, of international standards, of human 
rights, principles that Putin, Rouhani, and Castro have made a living 
out of ignoring and abusing to the detriment of the people who live 
under their oppressive rule.
  President Obama had an opportunity to set the tone, to call for 
reforms at the badly mismanaged United Nations, to challenge the status 
quo and reestablish America's leadership and credibility. Instead, he 
used it as an opportunity to pay lip service to American ideals and 
values and to abdicate America's role as a world leader, a void that is 
now being filled by our adversaries like Russia, Iran, China, and 
Syria.
  The Russians continue their aggressive actions in Ukraine and are now 
sending military hardware to the murderous Assad regime. Iran has had a 
record number of hangings since the so-called moderate leader, Rouhani, 
took office, and thousands of ethnic and religious minorities are 
imprisoned and sentenced to death.
  The President has done everything in his power not to upset the 
Iranians because he doesn't want to ruin the chance for a nuclear deal, 
a deal which will cause a nuclear and conventional arms race in the 
region, and his words yesterday proved to be empty rhetoric when 
matched to his policies and actions in the past.
  Not to be outdone, Raul Castro doubled down on his intransigence, 
further demonstrating that the Obama administration offered concessions 
to the regime, which have resulted in even greater oppression by that 
hated Cuban dictatorship. But per usual with the President, it was the 
``blame America first'' narrative that he was trying to peddle with his 
misguided policies toward Cuba.
  President Obama used this opportunity to undermine the United States 
Congress, and perhaps foreshadowing an eventual abstention on the U.N. 
vote on the Cuban embargo, he stated:

       I'm confident that our Congress will inevitably lift an 
     embargo that should not be in place anymore.

  President Obama failed once again to put the onus on the Castro 
regime to release all political prisoners, to hold free and fair 
elections, and to respect human rights in order for us to lift the 
embargo. The Cuban embargo language in the law is clear on all the 
conditions, Mr. Speaker, conditions that have to be met in order for it 
to be lifted, conditions that the Castro regime has no interest in 
abiding by.
  President Obama should stop ignoring current law and stop loosening 
regulations on a regime that has done nothing to deserve this praise. 
The Castro regime is the one responsible for the human rights 
violations occurring in Cuba and the constant beatings against pro-
democracy leaders. The U.S. embargo cannot be held responsible for 
that.
  Does Castro say: ``Oh, I had to beat the very peaceful group Ladies 
in White walking to church because the embargo says I must beat their 
heads in?'' Does Castro say: ``Oh, I cannot have any political party 
operating in Cuba other than the Communist Party because the embargo 
has me, obligates me, to only have this political party operating?'' 
Does he say: ``I cannot respect human rights in Cuba because that nasty 
U.S. embargo forces me to violate human rights?'' Of course not. That 
is lunacy. That is a responsibility that only Castro can claim. The 
Castro regime instead has done nothing--nada--to unclench its iron 
fist.
  Mr. Speaker, President Obama's remarks yesterday at the U.N. made him 
part of the problem with what is wrong at that broken institution; and, 
once again, it highlighted that his misplaced priorities and misguided 
foreign policies have not kept our country any safer.
  That is why it is up to us in Congress to be proactive and to push 
for reforms at the United Nations. That is why this week I am 
reintroducing my U.N. Transparency Accountability and Reform Act. My 
bill would fundamentally change the way that we fund this failed 
institution by shifting the funding mechanism from assessed to 
voluntary contributions in order to make the organization more 
effective and accountable to its objectives.
  For example, the Human Rights Council does not deserve our assistance 
when countries like Cuba, China, Venezuela, some of the world's worst 
human rights violators, push a decidedly anti-American, anti-Israel 
agenda at the Council. We should not fund these bodies at the U.N. We 
should only fund the ones that we believe are working, the ones that 
are transparent, the ones who are accountable to the member states that 
donate their budgets.
  Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration has had 7 years to implement 
reforms, and it has failed. It is time for Congress to take the lead, 
and I urge my colleagues to sign up to my bill this week.

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