DeLay: The U.N. Should Not Be Blindly Trusted
US News  | 6/15/05
 

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today highlighted a report released earlier today by a bipartisan U.S. Congressional taskforce stressing the urgent need for United Nations reforms.

"Most of the stated aims of the U.N.'s bureaucracy, to say nothing of the lofty ideals of its charter, have been undermined, and in many cases brazenly contradicted, by decades of waste, fraud, and abuse," DeLay said. "In the wake of the massive Oil- for-Food scandal still ripping through the U.N.'s headquarters, the American people - who currently provide 22 percent of the U.N.'s budget - can no longer trust that their dues payments are being responsibly spent."

The Taskforce on the United Nations, led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, today released a 174-page report criticizing the U.N. and calling for Secretary-General Kofi Annan to implement reforms.

"The U.N. should not be blindly trusted. The reform bill the House will take up this week will start to address the institutional shortcomings at the United Nations that were highlighted by this bipartisan report," DeLay said.

Tomorrow the House of Representatives will debate House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde's U.N. Reform Act, which calls for withholding up to half of the U.N. dues contributed by the U.S. until crucial reforms are made.