Ranking Member DeLauro at United Nations Hearing: “Our investment in the UN is an investment in our national security.”
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WASHINGTON – House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) delivered the following remarks during a National Security, Department of State and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee hearing at the United Nations:
The United Nations is the single largest, most effective organization devoted to global peace. It is made up of 193 countries, it represents the vast majority of humanity. Its very existence is evidence of our species’ ability to cooperate, to deliberate, to reason, and to resolve our disputes peacefully. It is a body dedicated to the prevention and relief of human suffering. It is a moral institution.
Each year, the UN provides food for more than 120 million hungry people, across more than 120 countries and territories. It extends an open hand to more than 139 million refugees fleeing famine, war, and persecution. And it supplies vaccines for 45% of the world’s children, helping to save 3 million lives annually.
The United States is responsible for roughly $2 billion in contributions to the UN each year. However, we seldom meet this obligation. In fact in 2025, the Trump Administration did not provide a single dollar in payments for the UN regular budget, contributing to a financial crisis at the UN, prompting the Secretary General to warn the institution faces “financial collapse” if member nations remain delinquent in their dues.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is seeking $200 billion in additional funding for President Trump’s war in Iran. It is remarkable, the distance between how much we are willing to devote to war and how little we can spare for peace.
Last year in a party-line vote, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle rescinded $1 billion in funding for the UN that had just months earlier been approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis. As you know, we can’t pass appropriations without there being unanimity – House, Senate; Republicans and Democrats.
A month after that, the White House illegally withheld another $5 billion in foreign aid funding, including more than $900 million in UN payments, through what they call a “pocket recission.” I call it, “stealing.”
All of this was done under the pretense that there is not a sufficient benefit to the United States to support foreign aid. That institutions like the UN are not worth investing in. That it somehow does not do enough to advance the cause of global peace and human rights. This is a deeply flawed argument.
The United States is a net beneficiary of the United Nations. American businesses were awarded over $2.1 billion in UN contracts in 2024 – more than we pay in dues. Our participation in the United Nations affords us immense influence over international affairs. Influence which will undoubtedly be claimed by our adversaries should we choose to forfeit it. So our investment in the UN is an investment in our national security.
Lastly, there is a sad hypocrisy to the claim that the United Nations has not been effective enough. This administration has chosen to defund the UN, flout its charter, withdraw from many of its initiatives, and begin an open-ended war – a war of choice. This administration is worsening the problems that it blames the UN for being unable to solve.
The United States, when we honor our commitments, when we keep our word to the international community, when we stand by our allies and stand up to our adversaries, we are all better off. We are all safer, we are more prosperous, and yes we are more free, when organizations like the United Nations have our full support.
We have a moral obligation as the most powerful nation in the world to promote peace and stability around the globe. And the United Nations is one of the best venues we have to advance that goal.
Ambassador Waltz, I look forward to your testimony and I look forward to the opportunity for questions and answers.
Mr. Chairman thank you, and I yield back.
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