Senator Seeks Limits on U.N.
BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 7, 2005

Concern about the U.N. renovation project has risen at the American capital, where Senator Sessions, a Republican of Alabama, introduced legislation yesterday that would curtail American financing for the refurbishment and make it contingent on more thorough accounting from the United Nations.
Last fall, President Bush approved a $1.2 billion, low-interest loan to the United Nations for the purpose of renovating its headquarters at Turtle Bay. Concerned about the outrageous cost of the proposed overhaul, and about America's role in financing it, Mr. Sessions sought to halve the amount the federal government could make available to the world body.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no loan in excess of $600,000,000 may be made available by the United States for the renovation of the United Nations headquarters building, located in New York, New York, the text of the Sessions legislation says.
The measure also demands a reporting requirement: Any such loan shall be contingent upon the satisfactory submission, by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, of a report to Congress containing a detailed analysis of the United Nations headquarters renovation.
Mr. Sessions introduced the legislation as an amendment to the Senate's State Department authorization bill. It approves federal funds for the department, which manages America's contributions to the United Nations, for fiscal years 2006 and 2007.
In turning his eye to the U.N. renovation project, Mr. Sessions joined congressional colleagues on the House Committee on International Relations who have urged Washington to demand more thorough accounting from the United Nations regarding the project. As The New York Sun reported last week, some members of that committee said they may insert provisions into the House's Foreign Relations Authorization Act to demand reform from the United Nations in exchange for American financing of the renovation. That measure provides House approval for American contributions to the United Nations.
As the authorization bill was being debated on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, the Alabama senator introduced his amendment in a speech that quoted extensively from an article that appeared February 4 in the Sun. In that article, several real-estate developers, including Donald Trump, were quoted as saying the proposed $1.2 billion price tag for the U.N. renovations was exorbitant.
Cautioning his Senate colleagues that the United Nations is notoriously wasteful, Mr. Sessions said he had spoken with Mr. Trump yesterday morning to learn more about the cost of construction and renovation in Manhattan, with which Mr. Trump has extensive experience, and about the developer's involvement in the U.N. renovation saga.
At the request of a European diplomat to whom the proposed cost of the Capital Master Plan - the U.N. term for the renovation project - seemed excessively high, Mr. Trump apparently met with Mr. Annan to discuss the refurbishment. According to Mr. Sessions, Mr. Trump said that the price tag for the renovation was outrageously high and that the only way it could have reached $1.2 billion was through incompetence or theft. In his meeting with Mr. Annan, according to Mr. Sessions, Mr. Trump offered to manage the renovation, promising to complete the project for $500 million - less than half of what is currently budgeted. Mr. Sessions said the United Nations never responded to Mr. Trump's offer.
Reading from the Sun article, Mr. Sessions also quoted several other developers who had said the renovation stands to cost at least double the maximum one might expect to spend on premium commercial renovation in Manhattan.
This is the most expensive renovation in history, the senator told colleagues.
He also said that because America agreed to pay 22% of the final cost of the renovation and any auxiliary buildings the United Nations constructs as part of the Capital Master Plan - including the proposed 35-story swing space to be erected at Robert Moses Playground, a city park neighboring the world body's Turtle Bay compound - American taxpayers have a real interest in this.
As the Sun reported yesterday, delays, including those caused by opposition from state lawmakers in Albany, have led the United Nations to consider alternatives to the swing-space building. Because the U.N. looks to begin its renovations in 2007, and the Robert Moses building could be ready no sooner than 2010, the world body is looking for space to rent, primarily in Manhattan, the U.N.'s management chief, Catherine Bertini, told the Sun Tuesday night.
In a note to correspondents sent yesterday to reporters covering the United Nations, the world body confirmed that the United Nations has asked the city and state to assist in looking for alternative swing space in the area, and that it has hired a commercial real-estate firm to assist in locating viable options. The United Nations, however, continues to view the proposed UNDC-5 building, the world body's term for the swing space, as the most beneficial option for consolidation space for the future.
If the U.N. did proceed with its plans to build the Robert Moses structure, the cost of the building and accompanying construction has been set at $650 million, to be financed initially in bonds issued by the United Nations Development Corporation, the New York city-state entity overseeing the development of the proposed 900,000-square-foot tower. Added to the $1.2 billion price tag of the renovation, the total cost of the project would be at least $1.85 billion, assuming there are no cost overruns. The portion of that bill footed by American taxpayers would be around $400 million.
The Senate, Mr. Sessions said, has a responsibility to make sure America and the United Nations spend the money wisely. He suggested yesterday that it would be better put toward combating AIDS, feeding the poor, or peacekeeping missions than toward building offices for bureaucrats.
Mr. Sessions thanked the Sun and Mr. Trump for their attention to the renovation project before introducing his amendment.
As of last night, the bill to which the amendment was added had been pulled from the Senate floor, as many members of Congress prepared to travel to the Vatican to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Senate sources said the bill could be brought back to the floor as early as next week.
In the meantime, the State Department declined to comment on the Sessions amendment. A spokeswoman for the United Nations, Marie Okabe, declined to comment beyond saying that the American government had already approved a $1.2 billion loan and directing the Sun to the note to correspondents about the Capital Master Plan.