Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about this bill overall, as well as potential amendments to the bill.

Above all, this time around, after the massive increase of spending due to COVID, I think we ought to look as to whether this budget is frugal and whether the increases in the budget are actually necessary.

I am going to address the line in the budget for international organizations, contributions to international organizations. The bill, as proposed on the floor today, is a 10 percent increase over last year. A lot of that money is going to the United Nations, a body that seems to delight in being critical of the United States and a body in which the clear majority of members operate governments in which you would not want to live there at all, human rights abuses and otherwise.

In any event, I think we should go back to the last en bloc. There is an amendment in there. Rather than increase the amount to these international organizations by 10 percent, decrease the amount by 10 percent.

We are putting so much pressure on the value of the dollar, so much debt on our children and grandchildren.

The idea of going back, not to a draconian level, but the idea of going back to somewhere between where we were in 2019 and 2020, not a radical number, I think would be prudent.

I think, in this line as well as other lines of the budget, we should be looking to hold things about even or a mild step back, not another massive 10 percent increase, which will largely fund an organization that takes delight in making fun of the United States and the freedoms that we have.

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