Marco Rubio Calling for U.N. Funding Reforms

From his perch on the Foreign Relations Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio offered a bill to reform the United Nations.

The United Nations was created with the specific objective of maintaining the peace that followed the end of World War II, said Rubio in a statement released on Thursday. More than six decades later, we still need a U.N. with resolve, a U.N. that acts with effectiveness and purpose. Sadly, the U.N.'s persistent ethics and accountability problems are limiting its role. Until the organization addresses these important issues, the stature of the organization will continue to suffer in the eyes of the world.

Rubios bill would change the structure of federal funding of the U.N., granting the government accountability office more audit control of American dollars going to that international body. Rubios bill would also stop American dollars going to U.N. agencies that recognize Palestine and the United Nations Relief and Works Agencys efforts in helping Palestinian refugees. The Florida Republican maintains the UNRWA needs to meet certain safeguards against terrorist links.

Examples of this troubling situation abound, from the ongoing efforts to circumvent direct negotiations to end the Israeli-Arab conflict, to the discredited Human Rights Council led by the worlds most notorious tyrants and human rights violators, to the proliferation of mandates that have clouded the organizations mission and effectiveness, Rubio said. It is imperative for the U.N. to modernize along a post-Cold War consensus based on transparency, effective promotion of human rights, free enterprise and nonproliferation.

Fellow Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, filed a similar bill in the House.