US Congress moves to squeeze UN
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - In a move virtually certain to add to strains between the US Congress and the United Nations, the International Relations Committee (HIRC) of the House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a sweeping bill that, if passed into law, will require Washington to withhold up to half of assessed US contributions to the world body unless it implements specific reforms.
Among other "reforms", The United Nations Reform Act of 2005, which is expected to be approved on the House floor next week, would require the UN to fund most of its programs through voluntary contributions, rather than mandatory dues from its 191 member-states, and enable Washington to pick and choose those programs it wished to fund.
It would also require the UN to set up a number of new oversight boards to investigate the UN bureaucracy and specific agencies, as well as adopt new rules that would bar alleged human-rights violators from serving on the UN Human Rights Commission. And it would withhold US support for new or expanded UN peacekeeping operations until specific reforms were implemented.
"No observer, be they passionate supporter or dismissive critic, can pretend that the current structure and operations of the UN represent an acceptable standard," HIRC chairman Henry Hyde, the act's main author, said on Wednesday.
"This act will usher in reforms that both Republican and Democratic administrations alike have long called for, including a more focused and accountable budget, one that should reflect the true priorities of the organization, shorn of duplicate, ineffective and outdated programs," he noted.
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