Prominent Republicans are protesting the Obama administration’s attempts to circumvent laws requiring the United States to defund the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
All American funding for UNESCO — which accounted for 22 percent of its budget, about $80 million a year — was cut off in November after the agency voted to approve the Palestinian Authority for full membership.
A law passed in 1990 states that "no funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states." Another law passed in 1994 imposes the same requirement.
But the White House is seeking a waiver to enable it to resume the funding in coming months. The administration requests $79 million for UNESCO in fiscal 2013.
At a Tuesday hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for foreign operations, Republican lawmakers asserted that the cutoff has been a success because the Palestinian Authority responded by suspending plans to seek membership in other U.N. agencies, CNS News reported.
Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, said: “Many members of Congress believe that cutting off these funds is the reason the P.A. stopped further recognition efforts.”
Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the subcommittee that the cutoff hurts U.S. interests more than it does the Palestinians.
UNESCO, she said, does “essential work, from girls’ education to tsunami warning, that serve U.S. interests.”
But Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa., said: “This subcommittee was pretty clear that if the Palestinians went to the U.N., UNESCO, that there would be consequences.”
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., asked Rice: “Do you not understand that we discredit ourselves when we don’t follow up on our commitments? Do you not see it, how it hurts our national interests, when we back away from our pre-existing, stated positions?”
Rice on Tuesday also met with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and an outspoken critic of the United Nations.
“The administration needs to leave U.S. law alone — it’s working by deterring other U.N. bodies from following in UNESCO’s footsteps and admitting ‘Palestine,’ and by ensuring that U.S. taxpayers don’t foot the bill for UNESCO’s bad behavior,” she said after meeting with Rice.
“Instead of trying to weaken U.S. law, the administration should cut off funding to Ramallah and make clear that UNESCO will not get one red cent from the U.S. until it un-admits ‘Palestine.’”
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