Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I have a very simple amendment. Actually, what it does is it just says that if we, Congress, do not authorize funds specifically for the U.N., which should be part of our process, then this agency shouldn't be funded and projects the U.N. is doing shouldn't be funded. I probably couldn't defund the whole U.N., but I will take much smaller steps and say that Congress needs to do its job. If it is not authorized, that is a process that Congress should follow, and it shouldn't be funded.

I know that is not a problem if the Appropriations Committee or the authorization committee didn't do its job; but if they didn't do their job, then they should start doing their job.

I think the process is broken, and we need to start dealing with corrupt agencies at the U.N.

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Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Chair, I think my colleague is not representing the amendment very correctly. This amendment does not defund the full U.N., which we probably should, considering what happened. It just defunds programs that we did not explicitly authorize. Congress should be doing its job.

Let's talk about UNICEF. UNICEF does not want to admit its shortcomings in its humanitarian support to children who allege that they were raped and sexually abused by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. This is the same U.N. agency that U.N. employees were alleged to have participated in the Hamas attack and where just recently one U.S. agency's staff whistleblower alleged large sums are being lost to corruption in Iraq as donors fail to track spending on $1.5 billion in aid projects. Roughly a half billion was funded by taxpayers of the United States.

The employees actually said it is not just this culture of bribery fueled by the U.N. It is also this culture of funds being spent on the U.N.'s large overhead and not really even getting to the people.

I have been on the ground a lot. I will be honest with you, our allies around the world are laughing that we are giving money to corrupt organizations controlled by Russia and China and may work most of the time against American interests.

It doesn't really help the people. I have been in war zones, including Ukraine, the Middle East, and Africa. You haven't seen them. You come to fancy hotels with fancy cars with executives showing up for pictures with congressional delegations, and people are suffering and dying. Americans are paying large money in the borrowed debt of our grandchildren to make some very wealthy and corrupt.

I think this is embarrassing for us. We don't take our jobs seriously. The Congress should start looking at these agencies and looking at the corruption within these agencies. I think this is something we have to take way more seriously. We should not give blank checks to corrupt organizations like the U.N. We need to do our jobs.

I truly believe we should really send a message that Americans are not stupid, that we are not going to be taken advantage of, that Congress is not stupid, that we actually will start looking at these programs, authorizing them, and seeing what is really happening on the ground if we really want to achieve results.

Our adversaries and our allies are going to be laughing at us, I will be honest with you. Most of our allies are saying we are not going to be giving money to these corrupt organizations like the U.N. I think Congress needs to act seriously.

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Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Chair, I think our national interest is to make sure that taxpayers' funds are really achieving goals in our best interest. Unfortunately, organizations like the U.N. being corrupt actually sabotage, diminish, and work against our national interests around the world and make a lot of people who are not our friends very wealthy.

We have now a serious situation in our country, serious debt, and inflation that has become a national security issue.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to become stronger, start challenging the corruption, and not to be afraid to challenge the status quo. It is the right thing to do. That is why people elect us here.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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