ARREARS TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON THE RISE

When President Bush first took office he was able to end years of the United States being derided as a "deadbeat" at the United Nations. In 2001 he made the final arrears payments of the "Helms-Biden" plan, which paid back dues to the UN in return for a lower U.S. assessment rate and a laundry list of managerial reforms. Now it looks like the U.S. is once again going in debt with the UN and other international institutions.

The Senate's Commerce Justice State (CJS) appropriations FY05 mark-up reduced the Administrations request for dues to international organizations by $174 million and for UN peacekeeping by $76 million. This may not seem like a huge number considering the strains on this year's appropriations. But when added to a $90 million dollar shortfall in FY04 funding, an expected billion dollar plus peacekeeping bill, and Congress's inability to authorize the removal of a cap on peacekeeping assessments - the U.S. could easily become a billion dollar deadbeat once again.

FY04 Short Fall

The State Department is planning to reallocate FY04 funds to International Organizations, primarily because of a $90 million dollar shortfall created primarily by exchange rate losses. Congress had appropriated $999,830,000 but U.S. obligations for the period totaled $1,090,187,000. The organizations expected to receive the short end of the stick include the International Labor Organization, the UN War Crimes Tribunals (both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda), UNESCO (which the US just rejoined), NATO, and the OECD.

FY05 Problems

It is not yet known how the weakened dollar will affect the Administration's request for $1.194 billion for contributions to international organizations, but the House CJS bill did meet this request. The Senate bill, which has not yet come to the floor for a vote, only asks for 1.02 billion - with no clear guidance in the Committee's report as to which international organization should receive less.

Although this may be worked out in Conference, the larger problem lies with the Peacekeeping account. Of the $650 million requested by the State Department and agreed to by the House, the Senate has so far only agreed to $574 million. This comes at time when demands on UN peacekeeping are at an all time high and the U.S. share of upcoming expenses are expected to be in excess of $1.2 billion due to new missions or expanded missions in Haiti, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and the Sudan. Although UN missions are typically under-resourced, the Senate committee report demands that in "light of the explosive growth in the number of peacekeeping missions and the skyrocketing costs of providing troops and logistical support to those missions, the United Nations must identify ways to do more with less funding." The Committee believes that "private companies can carry out effective peacekeeping missions . At a minimum, such companies should be utilized to supplement the number of blue berets and blue helmets which, in these turbulent times, the United Nations is having a difficult time recruiting." We've seen how well private contractors have worked as security force in Iraq. Who will hold them accountable in the DRC or Sudan?

Peacekeeping Cap

During the Clinton Administration the US assessment for peacekeeping was reduced from about 31% to 27%. However, Congress had previously passed a law that capped US contributions at 25%. The legislation that was passed in 2000 to raise the limit to 27% expires at the end of September 2004. Secretary of State Powell has asked Congress to permanently remove this cap. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee did so in its State Department Authorization. But for unrelated reasons this bill has not been allowed to come to the floor for a vote. Although the Senate CJS Committee report notes that the "United States currently pays approximately 27 percent of the assessed costs of U.N. peacekeeping operations" there does not seem to be any authorization language in the pipeline to make this a reality.

Updated September 29, 2004