Pelosi: Lantos Substitute Is a Better Way to Achieve Needed Reforms at United Nations
Pelosi: Lantos Substitute Is a Better Way to Achieve Needed Reforms at United Nations
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616
Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted the following statement today into the Congressional Record today on an amendment by Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) that calls for reforms at the United Nations in a diplomatic and effective manner:
"Mr. Speaker, this is an instance in which both the proponents and opponents of the Lantos substitute share the same goal: reforming the United Nations. We differ over the best means to accomplish that goal, and that disagreement is fundamental.
"The Republican committee bill embodies a go-it-alone, take-it-or-leave-it approach to dealing with the United Nations that is entirely inconsistent with the tenets of an international organization founded on the belief that nations should be respectful of each other's views.
"With the Bush Administration having so recently suffered the debacle of dealing with U.N. members in an imperious way before the invasion of Iraq, and then being surprised by the U.N.'s reluctance to join the United States on the course the Administration had pre-determined, one would think that the Republican majority in the House would have learned a lesson about the kind of approach likely to produce international cooperation. The Republican bill is evidence that they have not.
"The bill approved by the House International Relations Committee last week mandates the withholding of dues if certain reforms are not implemented, dictates the scope of the reforms, and provides precious little time to have them agreed to and put in place. The bill creates a system designed to fail, and then imposes draconian consequences for the failure. Not only have eight former U.S. ambassadors to the U.N. come out strongly in opposition to the bill, but Secretary of State Rice has been noticeably silent about it.
"The Lantos substitute fashions a better way to achieve needed reform at the U.N. without imperiling American interests in peacekeeping and other activities. That way is to provide the secretary of state with the maximum flexibility to employ diplomacy to expand the number of countries sharing our views on reform so that a broad-based mandate for reform is produced. By holding out the possibility that U.S. dues would be withheld if reform is not achieved, but not making withholding mandatory, the substitute creates the conditions for diplomacy to work effectively.
"I urge my colleagues to recognize the interest that the United States has in a strong and effective United Nations, and to weigh carefully whether the steps we take in this bill will strengthen that institution or weaken it. Reform is the right way to go and the right way to achieve it is to adopt the Lantos substitute. I urge my colleagues to vote for it."