Poll: Voters, Congress at Odds Over UN Funding

Over 80 percent of American voters want their government to continue being actively engaged in affairs at the United Nations, says a new poll conducted for the UN Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting the UN’s role and activities.

The public opinion study, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates, comes as the House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold Thursday a markup hearing on the “United Nations Transparency, Accountability and Reform Act” put forward by Committee chairman Ileana Ros -Lehtinen (R- FL).

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly sent lawmakers on Capitol Hill a letter today arguing that bill would have a negative impact on American interests and that she would recommend President Obama veto the measure. 

Peter Yeo director of the UN Foundation, says the study clearly demonstrates that Congress is out of touch with the American electorate. 

“Americans oppose withholding American dues from the UN and Americans also want to remain very engaged with the UN because they recognize the important ways the UN serves American interests.” 

The proposed bill would change the manner in which the US funds the UN’s various agencies and significantly cut American financial support to the world body. 

UN member states each now pay dues that represent a percentage of the organizations total budget. US dues represents approximately 22% of the UN budget, making it the highest contributing member state ahead of Japan (16%).  

The new bill would forgo the dues system and allow the US to disburse funds to the United Nations on a case by case voluntary basis. 

Although US voter support for the UN tends to be drawn across party lines, the poll found that the majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independents were in favor of the US paying its dues on time. 

The poll was conducted by a bipartisan polling team among 900 registered voter nationwide between October 1-4.