U.S. Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) on Monday offered legislation that would create a ranking based on U.S. interests to help Congress understand which United Nations organizations are worth continued funding and which should be completely defunded or receive significant cuts.
“It is clear that many UN programs work against U.S. interests, and reports are now showing some explicitly fund terrorism,” Rep. Curtis said. “This bill will get our priorities on the record and ensure taxpayer dollars flow only to programs that are necessary for the security of the United States.”
The Determining Excessive Funding for the United Nations for Dereliction (DEFUND) Act would require the U.S. State Department to rank the UN agencies based on how vital they are to U.S. interests, according to a bill summary provided by the congressman’s staff.
Forcing the State Department to rank the organizations would prevent the UN from making the argument that all of them are equally important, the summary says, noting that if U.S. interests are harmed, negligible, or overridden by more urgent priorities, the U.S. then should terminate its support and membership.
The introduction of the bill follows a recent probe into employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) allegedly being involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
During the past four years, other examples have surfaced of mishaps from international agencies, states the summary, including the World Health Organization, which failed to prevent a pandemic by ignoring Taiwan’s warnings.
Other UN organizations also should not be legitimized, the summary says, such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Cuba, and Russia, which have been elected as members of the UN Human Rights Council, with Iran set to chairing the council’s Social Forum, despite ongoing, documented human rights abuses in those countries.
Rep. Curtis pointed out that in 2022, the U.S. donated a total of almost $18.1 billion, or 33.6 percent of total government donations, to the UN.