The last Paragraph is the best
House threatens U.N. funding unless reforms are made
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is telling the United Nations to reform or lose U.S. financial support, and signaling the White House to take a tougher stand.
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., authored the bill that went against the White House.
By Dennis Cook, AP
The messages came Friday as the House voted 221-184, with a mostly Republican majority, to withhold one half of assessed U.S. dues — now about $440 million a year — if the U.N. doesn't accomplish nearly four dozen steps to improve its accountability and root out corruption.
Failure to comply would also result in U.S. refusal to support expanded and new peacekeeping missions.
"History shows that when Congress stands tough, when it says that if you don't reform we are not going to pay, then change occurs," said the bill's author, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
The Bush administration, while applauding the House for pressing for changes at the U.N., said the automatic withholding of payments could "detract from and undermine our efforts" to work with U.N. members to improve the organization.
The House rejected, on a 216-190 vote, an alternative offered by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., that would have made similar demands for change but leave it to the secretary of state to decide whether to withhold up to 50% of payments.
The Senate has no immediate plans to take up the bill and its chances of becoming law are uncertain. But it was clear that the frustrations of House Republicans, who voted overwhelmingly for the Hyde bill, outweighed the urgings of the administration to reconsider the legislation.
"Far from promoting justice and respect for international law, the United Nations has become one of the world's greatest apologists for tyranny and terror," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "The U.N.'s corruption is so breathtaking in its scope as to be almost universal."