PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES LEGISLATORS

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES LEGISLATORS

A group of members of the United States Congress told a Headquarters press conference this morning that it was “wrong, embarrassing and outrageous that the wealthiest country in the world has become the biggest deadbeat at the UN”.

Representative Nita Lowey (Democrat, New York) made these remarks in the course of a press statement made on behalf of herself, Chris Shays (Republican, Connecticut), Eliot Engel (Democrat, New York), and Jim Leach (Republican, Iowa), in their capacities as co-Chairs of the bipartisan Congressional United Nations Working Group, which was formed in 1997 to advocate payment of United States arrears to the United Nations.

Lowey, who is a member of the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, was joined at the press conference by Mr. Shays and another member of Congress who favours prompt payment of the arrears -- Tony Hall (Democrat, Ohio).

Ms. Lowey said the funding was critical to United States foreign policy. “It shows the international community that a commitment made by the United States means something. And it gives the United Nations the resources it needs to carry on the important work it’s doing around the globe."

Ms. Lowey went on to express the Working Group's concern that “the level of [United States] influence is decreasing with every day that we don’t pay our arrears [and] we face the unimaginable prospect of losing our vote in the General Assembly under the requirements of Article 19”. [Article 19 of the Charter provides that a Member State whose arrears amount to two years' worth of dues shall lose its Assembly voting privileges.]

“For the last few years, our opponents have used another egregious tactic”, she added. “They have linked United Nations arrears to the so- called Mexico City policy –- a global gag rule which would destroy our critical international family planning programmes”. [That policy, precluding United States contributions to any international programme that advocated abortion is thus named because it was first advanced at the International Conference on Population, held at Mexico City in 1984. It remained in effect until 1993.]

Mr. Hall, describing himself as a “pro-life Democrat”, said the issues of abortion and the arrears should not be linked. “Great nations pay their bills”, he told correspondents, adding that a majority of the “pro-life Democrats” in the House of Representatives had voted in

United States Press Conference - 2 - 27 September 1999

favour of his proposal last August [which would have made a down- payment on the United States’ dues to the United Nations, but was defeated by 221 to 206 votes].

Ms. Lowey characterized as “misguided thinking” the linkage of the payment of the arrears with the Mexico City policy.

Mr. Shays said that the “good news” was that in last year’s budget, Congress had appropriated $100 million for the United Nations, plus $475 million in the current budget year and $351 million in next year's budget. “Now all we need is authorization to free up that money”, he explained.

Mr. Shays said continued non-payment of arrears by the United States was “insanity”. The international community was making it clear to Washington that the United States was “losing its moral authority”.

Responding to correspondents' questions, Mr. Shays declined to comment on whether the non-payment was morally inconsistent with the United States’ position as a permanent member of the Security Council, adding that it would be a matter of sufficient concern if the United States were to lose its right to sit on General Assembly bodies, such as the Budget Committee.

Asked what influence the United States Permanent Representative, Richard Holbrooke, was likely to bring to bear on the budget issue, Ms. Lowey said that he had the respect of the House and the Senate, and felt "extremely strongly about this”. Mr. Shays said that both Mr. Holbrooke and President Clinton were in a position to “make a gigantic difference".

Mr. Shays concluded by reiterating that the appropriations that could settle the United States' arrears were in place. “We just need the authorization; this could happen. And the beneficiary will be our foreign policy in the rest of the world.”

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