Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chair, this bill inexplicably defunds UN Women. What is UN Women? UN Women was created by the United Nations in 2010 to direct activities on gender equality issues. The organization helps meet the most urgent needs of women and girls by supporting women's full participation in their country's political, economic, and social life.

So as I said, this bill inexplicably takes away funding, $8.5 million, that we are trying to get back from this very important program. I think this defunding of this is wrong, it is unwise, it is immoral.

Let me tell you what happens when we abandon the UN Women, because this is what we are walking away from: providing services for survivors of human trafficking. We are walking away from registering women to vote and participate in their political system, including women in the peacemaking process. We are walking away from combating child bride kidnapping and fighting child marriage. That is what we are walking away from today.

I know we have a lot of issues here in this country. We have been battling the hurricanes, and I know our hearts go out to all those impacted.

There is something else that has been going on in this world for years now, which is the greatest humanitarian crisis that we have seen since World War II, and that is what is happening in Syria. You have millions of people fleeing into neighboring countries, running away from rape, from murder, from chemical attacks.
What is the United States doing?

Oh, well. We are abandoning the Muslims, we are trying to build the walls, while we have great allies like Jordan, for example, who have now taken in over a million Syrian refugees, including this very young girl who was at a program that I had an opportunity to visit when I was in Jordan at a facility run by the UN Women where they are working with women to give them skills, to teach them.

This young girl fled her home in Syria under rocket fire, leaving her family, her brother killed, and fleeing to Jordan, where she is now learning to be a journalist. We are defunding programs like that in this bill.
So we are putting so many women's lives at risk, like Zaad, the girl I just talked about, leaving women and girls vulnerable to sex trafficking, poverty, homelessness, and hunger; and we say we want to try to bring stabilization to these regions across the world.

Let me tell you what research shows. Research shows that when women are empowered, economies grow and societies are more stable with less violence. And our own U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said:

We want to make sure that our governments support girls and support women, and we should encourage every country to support these basic rights.

So what are we doing today? We are defunding UN Women. As I said, it is inexplicable and it is wrong. I think it is actually idiotic.

Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), who I think can elucidate even more on this subject.

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