Senate OKs Back Dues for U.N.--With a Hitch

In a nearly unanimous vote, the Senate agreed Tuesday to pay off almost $1 billion in U.S. back dues to the United Nations--but conditioned it on the world body cutting Washington’s share of future budgets by one-fifth and accepting a package of financial reforms.

The measure, sent to the House on a 98-1 vote, would do little to reduce the steadily growing tensions between the United Nations and its most affluent member because the bill permits payment of far less than what the U.N. maintains the United States owes and because it tries to force a reduction in U.S. dues, a step the U.N. General Assembly refused to take in 1997.

Moreover, action in the House is uncertain. Last year, President Clinton vetoed the dues legislation when a House coalition, led by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), tacked an antiabortion amendment onto it. Smith and his allies say they will try the tactic again this year, and the White House has threatened another veto.

Despite overwhelming Senate passage of the bill without the abortion rider, congressional aides say it is unlikely that a veto of the bill with the abortion language could be overridden.

The U.N. dues money is contained in legislation authorizing $6.4 billion in State Department spending for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and slightly more than $6 billion for the following year. It also authorizes a $3-billion, five-year program to improve security at U.S. diplomatic buildings in the wake of the deadly bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August.

The United States has failed to pay its dues on time for the past 13 years as part of a test of wills designed to force the U.N. to reform what many in Congress say is a bloated bureaucracy.

The U.N. says the United States is $1.69 billion in arrears; the U.S. government disputes the figure, maintaining that it owes about $1 billion.

The bill authorizes $819 million in overdue payments to the U.N. and its agencies, and wipes out $107 million in debts the world organization owes to the U.S. government. The bill specifies that the debt relief for the U.N. must be offset by a similar reduction of the amount the U.S. owes the U.N.

The bill also demands that the U.N. reduce from 25% to 20% the portion of the regular U.N. budget that is assessed to Washington. And it calls for a reduction in the U.S. share of peacekeeping operations from 31% to 25%. U.N. assessments are based on ability to pay, and the United States has always carried the largest share of the load.

The final language of the Senate bill was the result of negotiations between Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Richard Holbrooke, Clinton’s nominee for U.N. ambassador, pledged to support the lower U.S. share.

“Budgetary discipline will be my watchword,” Holbrooke told the Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing on his nomination.

Although the General Assembly refused two years ago to cut the U.S. assessment, the body would seem to have little choice this time because the United States is not paying its full amount anyway. But the step is sure to touch off grumbling, even among U.S. allies such as Britain that have been critical of the reluctance of the U.S. to pay its dues.