At the close of 2011, Florida Senator Marco Rubio introduced S1848 as a companion bill to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act (H.R. 2829), which the OU also supports.

The pending legislation aims to change the funding structure of the UN in order to increase efficiency and accountability.  Ultimately, it advocates for voluntary contributions – as is done for UNICEF or the World Food Program – so that the US does not inadvertently fund activities with which it fundamentally disagrees, such as the anti-Semitic Durban Conference, or the flawed Goldstone Report from the Human Rights Council.

Senator Rubio, who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the bill by stating that, “The United Nations was created with the specific objective of maintaining the peace that followed the end of World War II.  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.”

The OU wholeheartedly supports this endeavor to make the UN more effective, and calls upon its members to urge their Senators to support it as well, as the bill moves forward in committee.