Oversight Action

I believe Congress should be committed to conducting meaningful oversight when it comes to examining how Washington spends your hard-earned tax dollars. It is imperative our government run as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to meet the many challenges facing our nation. To that end, I continue to work toward eliminating the fiscal waste and abuse found throughout the government bureaucracy, and ask members of Congress and citizens across the country will join me in this effort to demand transparency and accountability in the federal budget.

• Reports: As part of this oversight initiative, I am working to release a series of oversight reports on federal agencies. I hope agencies and other congressional committees alike will welcome this oversight and work with us to help identify even more areas of waste, fraud, and abuse, as well as new ways to better prioritize our nation’s limited financial resources. To view these oversight reports, please visit the “Investigative Reports” page:
  
  
  
• Government Waste: For examples of outrageous government waste, visit the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” and "Washington Waste of the Day" pages.
  
  
  
  
  
  If you have discovered government waste, and want to submit a tip (anonymously, if you wish) for an area in need of oversight, please visit the "Submit a Tip About Government Waste" page:
  
  
  
• Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency:  The USASpending.gov website allows you to “google” all government grants, contracts and loans, so you can track how your money is being spent by Washington:
  
  

The information listed below is my latest oversight reports and letters.  I am absolutely committed to aggressive and responsible congressional oversight of all federal spending. I will identify problems and provide information to the Congress and the public. However, it is up to the American people to demand that their elected officials respond vigorously to the findings.

Tom Coburn, M.D.

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August 1, 2006

U.S. contributions to the U.N. system are over $5.3 billion

OMB, for the first time ever, reveals how much the taxpayers fund the U.N.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report yesterday to Dr. Coburn on contributions of U.S. taxpayers to the United Nations. Before this report, no one in the federal government had ever developed a public compilation of the total U.S. contributions, including non-monetary, to the entire U.N. system.

According to the report, in 2005, the United States gave $5.3 billion to the U.N—a 30% increase from 2004 funding level of $4.1 billion. Almost every Department of the U.S. government plus several independent agencies fund the U.N. Although the U.N. does not track this information or at least does not make such information public, most experts say the total U.N. budget is between $15-20 billion. The U.S. funded portion is between 25% and 30%.

The release of this report is a small first step towards transparency for the U.S. government. The taxpayers donate a considerable amount of cash and in-kind contributions to the U.N., but without knowing where the money is going and exactly how much, it is impossible to judge whether or not this is money well spent.

Related Resources:

Letters:

• OMB: Report on U.S. Contributions to the U.N. System (FY01-05) (9.3 MBs)
  
  

  Jul 31, 2006

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