WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt’s Foreign Affairs Subcommittee will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine U.S. support for United Nations peacekeeping. 

“Even as the Bush Administration continues to vote for more missions for the UN, it has not provided full funding for these operations,” said Delahunt, one of two Congressional delegates to the United Nations General Assembly.  “Our panel will examine the reasons for this, and seek to propose a resolution to this problem, which threatens American interests around the world.”

In 2005, Delahunt requested that the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, study the cost of UN peacekeeping operations.  That review found that a UN mission costs US taxpayers eight times less than an equivalent US military operation.  Nevertheless, the debt the US owes to the UN for peacekeeping support now exceeds $1 billion.

DATE:                  Wednesday, April 2, 2008

WHO:                   Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight

TIME:                  2:00 p.m.

WHERE               Room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building

SUBJECT:            “United Nations Peacekeeping Operations:  An Underfunded International Mandate – the Role    of                       the United States”

BRIEFER:           Jane Holl Lute, Ph.D.
                       Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations and Officer in Charge of the    Department of Field Support
                       United Nations

WITNESS:          The Honorable Kristen Silverberg
                        Assistant Secretary
                        Bureau of International Organization Affairs
                        U.S. Department of State

 

-30-