Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds as follows: United Nations
(UN)peacekeeping operations are a critical force-multiplier for the United States, and decades of research has found peacekeeping to be highly effective in reducing civilian deaths, shortening the duration of conflicts, containing the geographic spread of war, and reducing the likelihood of conflict reoccurrence and sexual and gender-based violence. The Government Accountability Office found in 2006 and 2018 reviews that it is eight times cheaper to financially support a United Nations mission than to deploy United States military forces. Every UN member state is legally required to finance the UN’s peacekeeping budget in order to ensure that these missions are properly resourced, and assessment rates are renegotiated every three years by the UN General Assembly. In 2018 the United States voted in support of the current rate structure, which sets United States peacekeeping contributions at 27.89 percent. Since fiscal year 2017, the United States has accrued more than $1 billion in debt on its financial obligations to UN peacekeeping, due to congressional enforcement of a 1994 law that limits United States contributions to 25 percent of the total UN peacekeeping budget in any fiscal year after 1995. Since fiscal year 2000, Congress has, on a bipartisan basis, lifted the 25 percent cap 15 times, including retroactively for calendar years 2006–2008 during the Bush Administration. In 2019, the Department of State reported to Congress the following impacts of growing United States arrears to the UN:
(1)Loss of vote or inability to be a member of governing bodies;
(2)Diminished U.S. standing and diminished ability to pursue U.S. priorities;
(3)Reduced U.S. ability to promote increased oversight and accountability through reforms that promote efficiency, cost savings, and improved management practices;
(4)Reduced standing needed to successfully promote qualified U.S. citizens to assume senior management roles; and
(5)Impairments of peacekeeping missions to operate, including addressing objectives that may directly impact the national security of the United States . United States ongoing accrual of arrears is having a negative impact on the financial health of UN peacekeeping with low and middle-income countries, who voluntarily provide the bulk of the troops, police, and equipment to these missions, not being adequately reimbursed for their contributions and shouldering an increasing financial burden. The People’s Republic of China is now the second largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, having gone from an assessment rate of just 3 percent in 2008 to more than 15 percent in 2021, and is the ninth largest troop-contributor to UN missions, providing more personnel than the other four permanent members of the Security Council combined. The People’s Republic of China has used this expanded influence to argue against human rights, civilian protection, and gender-based violence personnel within UN peacekeeping operations, in part using United States funding shortfalls as a pretext to downsize peacekeeping missions. Prior to fiscal year 2017, when the United States was paying its peacekeeping dues at the full assessed rate, the United States and the UN worked together to institute a number of cost-saving and efficiency reforms, including reducing the cost per peacekeeper by 18 percent, reducing the number of support staff, and shortening the timeline between when a mission is mandated and when personnel, equipment, and services are fully deployed. Beginning in 2015 and with the support of the United States, the UN strengthened measures to combat sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers, including strict timelines for completing investigations; immediate response teams inside peacekeeping missions to handle allegations; suspending payments to countries whose troops face credible allegations of misconduct; repatriation of units engaged in systematic abuse; establishing an online database to track allegations and investigations; appointing the first Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the first Victims’ Rights Advocate; and establishing a trust fund to support and assist victims. Improving U.S. financial standing at the UN would allow the U.S. to more effectively advocate for a range of reform efforts, including supporting strategies that have been particularly effective in reducing sexual and gender-based violence where peacekeepers operate, while also continuing to strengthen measures to end instances of sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations. In 2021, the top positions at nine UN specialized agencies, funds, and programs will be decided, and the United States will be better positioned to argue for its own preferred candidates at UN entities if it is in good financial standing at the UN. In 2018, during the triennial scales of assessment rate negotiations, the United States was unable to deliver significant changes in rates due in part to outstanding arrears. In 2021, the scale of assessments negotiations will occur again and a demonstrated willingness to pay United States assessments in full will play an important role in garnering support from other UN member states.