Bill on U.N. Reform Causes Friction
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 17, 2005

UNITED NATIONS - Despite strong opposition from the Bush administration, Democrats, and Turtle Bay, Republican legislators were cautiously optimistic that a bill proposed by Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican of Illinois, mandating cuts in American funding to the United Nations in case it fails to reform, will pass Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Some of the bill's supporters, however, hinted that an opposing Democrat-led bill, which would remove the threat of sanctions, could gain wider support among Republicans.
I am cautiously optimistic of a victory, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida, who strongly supports threatening to withdraw U.N. dues, told The New York Sun yesterday.
But we need courageous Democrats who would buck their party leaders who want to give a free pass to the corrupt U.N.
The proposed bill has created friction between the White House and Congressional Republicans. The power of the purse belongs to Congress and is not delegable, Mr. Hyde said in a speech on the House floor.
Provisions in the Hyde bill impermissibly infringe on the president's authority under the Constitution to conduct the nation's foreign affairs, countered the White House in a statement issued yesterday.
But rather than threatening to wield the first veto of the Bush administration, the White House statement indicated that even if it passes, the legislation might be moderated once it moved to the Senate. The Administration would look forward to working with Congress to develop the kind of bicameral effort that will lead to meaningful U.N. reform, the statement read.
The proposed legislation calls on the State Department to certify annually that the United Nations has followed through on 39 reform provisions. If Turtle Bay fails to comply, America would cut its funding to the U.N.'s budget by half, as well as cutting its contribution to other U.N.-related activities such as peacekeeping. America pays 22% of the annual $2 billion U.N. regular budget and participates in a similar percentage in other areas.
Yes, this is radical surgery, but sometimes, that's the only way to save the patient, Mr. Hyde said. He said several other reform plans, including one proposed by the United Nations itself, will fail without the threat mandated by his bill.
Admonishment will not transform sinners into saints, he said. Gentle proddings will be ignored.
Secretary-General Annan has presented a reform package that he hopes would pass at an international conference scheduled for September at Turtle Bay. A congressionally mandated committee headed by a former Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and a former Democratic Senate majority leader, George Mitchell, was published this week.
The secretary-general proposes in his report a standard which would have the U.N. as the only legitimate venue in the world. That an absurd position. We say the opposite, Mr. Gingrich said. The current culture at the world body, he added is frankly cheating the poor of the world and the helpless in the world of the kind of protection that they ought to be given.
Rep. Tom Lantos, a Democrat of California, yesterday introduced an amendment co-sponsored by Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican of Connecticut, which he hoped would replace the Hyde bill. The alternative would remove the threat of automatic cuts, which Mr. Lantos called a guillotine on autopilot.
He, too, aims to fight corruption, hypocrisy, ineffectiveness, waste, and anti-Americanism at the United Nations, Mr. Lantos said. But if the Hyde bill passes, everyone would lose control. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will have absolutely no choice in the matter. The President of the United States will have no choice in this matter. The Congress will have no choice in this matter.