June 18, 2005
House Votes to Set Conditions on U.N. to Avoid Cut in Dues
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT 
WASHINGTON, June 17 - Defying the Bush administration, the House passed a bill on Friday that would cut by half the dues paid by the United States to the United Nations unless the international organization drastically overhauled its operations. 
The House approved the bill 221 to 184, with Republicans voting in large numbers for it despite White House opposition. The vote reflected House Republicans' new defiance of the administration's wishes and set the stage for further tensions as the Senate prepares to vote on the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday.
The House bill would withhold half the United States' dues starting in 2007 if the United Nations did not meet 46 requirements, including greater financial transparency, independent oversight and the creation of an office of ethics. 
It would not withhold funds from United Nations agencies like the World Food Program or Unicef, which receive voluntary contributions from donor nations. 
The House bill is unlikely to survive in its current form, in that Senate leaders have already voiced their opposition to any measure that would mandate cuts in dues. The United States has withheld dues in the past - over complaints that the organization was corrupt and over its support for abortion programs. Most notably, during the Clinton administration in the 1990's, the United States piled up so much debt that its voting rights in the General Assembly were jeopardized. 
Critics of the House bill said it was even more essential now, given recent diplomatic strains, for the United States to remain current with its payments, as it has for several years. The United States contributed $438 million to the United Nations' 2005 budget of more than $1.8 billion, making it the largest donor.
Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illinois Republican who sponsored the bill and weathered fierce resistance to get it passed, said the only effective step Congress could take with the United Nations was to tell it that if you don't reform, we're not going to pay.
There is a mind-set in the upper realms of diplomacy that worships at the theater of the U.N., and couldn't possibly bring itself to withholding dues, Mr. Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said during the floor debate. I don't think it will work, and implore you to put some teeth in the sanctions.
Reacting cautiously, a spokesman for the White House said that the administration's opposition was unchanged, but that it was too soon to tell how the Senate might act. We have a bicameral legislative body and we don't necessarily have a law yet, said the spokesman, Frederick L. Jones, who works for the National Security Council. President Bush has not threatened to veto the measure.
The House voted 216 to 190 to defeat an alternative measure, offered by Representatives Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, and Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, that would have granted the secretary of state the discretion to withhold the dues if changes were not made. 
In an interview, Mr. Lantos said, The Senate won't even seriously consider what the House just passed. He said he expected the final version to more closely resemble his bill. But, he said, The legislative train has now left the station. 
The U.N. will be redone completely within the next two or three years, Mr. Lantos said. I have not the slightest doubt on this.
A spokesman for Senator Richard G. Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the committee would draw up its own bill supporting United Nations reform, but would not likely include a provision to cut off dues. 
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he was deeply committed to reform and had already taken steps toward it. He believes that U.S. engagement and leadership in this process is very important but does not feel that withholding dues is a productive route to achieving reform, he said.
Among the amendments that passed along with the House bill was a provision offered by Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, to give the secretary general greater latitude to waive immunity for diplomats who commit criminal offenses. Other amendments added requirements that the United Nations must meet in order to keep the dues at current levels.
The debate granted critics in the House an opportunity to flog an institution that has long been a popular target for conservatives, all the more so since recent revelations of corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program and of United Nations peacekeepers committing sexual offenses against civilians.