Congresswoman Seeks to Pick and Choose U.S. Funding at U.N. [Ieana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)]

FoxNews.com ^ | August 30, 2011

[Hunton Peck]

United Nations funding is back in the crosshairs of a key congresswoman who has unveiled a measure in the House that would make dues voluntary in an attempt to pressure the world body to change the way it operates.

The bill by Rep. Ieana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would make it U.S. policy to shift the U.N.'s regular budget to a voluntary basis and allow the U.S. and other member states to choose what they fund at the U.N.

The measure has already attracted 57 co-sponsors, but it faces opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate and from the Obama administration.

"We just don't think this is the right way to go about it," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a briefing Tuesday. "Rather, we would like to work within the U.N. system and will continue to try and do so on U.N. reform."

The U.N. has a mandatory dues-paying process paid by member states. But specialized functions of the U.N., like peacekeeping operations, UNICEF and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, are funded separately through voluntary contributions. Ros-Lehtinen wants to turn the whole system that way to put an end to an agenda that "is frequently hijacked by rogue regimes which protect each other while targeting free democracies like the U.S. and Israel."

[Hunton Peck]

My choice would be to defund the whole rats' nest of course, but this sounds like a step in the right direction. Sort of a line-item veto.

Not surprisingly, the 0bama-Clinton administration is opposed.

[Publius6961]

"We just don't think this is the right way to go about it," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a briefing Tuesday. "Rather, we would like to work within the U.N. system and will continue to try and do so on U.N. reform."

Yes you incompetent moron.
You have been so efficacious the last 40 years or so.

Why don't you resign and let some higher than 50 IQ folks give it a try?

[Hunton Peck]

Might as well try to work within the Mafia system on Mafia reform.

I’d wish Ms. Nuland good luck with that, but we all know that what she said is meaningless, and what they actually intend to do is continue with business as usual.