House GOP seeks return of $179 million from United Nations

House Republicans on Wednesday will pass legislation that would require the Obama administration to insist that the United Nations repay the United States $179 million in overpaid funds.

U.S. overpayments to the UN have been building up in recent years through transfers to the UN's Tax Equalization Fund (TEF). That fund is used to reimburse UN staff who are taxed on their earnings. The U.S. is one of the few countries that applies a tax against salaries earned by their citizens at the UN, and as a result, the UN reimburses U.S. nationals for this tax hit through the TEF.

Then, the United States reimburses the UN by contributing to the TEF, which means that effectively, the country does not tax the UN salaries of U.S. citizens through this complicated system.

Last summer, the UN reported that the United States had about $179 million in funds sitting in the TEF, but said it was waiting for instructions from Washington on what to do next. An aide on the House Foreign Affairs Committee added that week that the UN is now asking for permission to use the extra money to fund security improvements at the UN's New York headquarters.

But under legislation sponsored by Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the administration would be directed to ask for the money back. It would also "use the voice and vote of the United States" to get the UN to reform the TEF assessment process "to reduce the repeated discrepancies between TEF income and expenditures."

The bill would also tell the administration to instruct the UN to return any extra funds each year, and to withhold $179 million of the U.S. biennial contribution to the UN's budget until the Secretary of State certifies that the UN has reimbursed the U.S. for that amount.

Ros-Lehtinen's committee held a hearing in late January on urgent UN problems that need to be addressed by Congress. In a statement prepared for that hearing, she said she would soon prepare legislation that conditions U.S. payments to the UN on "real, sweeping reforms, including moving the UN regular budget to a voluntary funding basis."

Her statement said the United States pays more than 20 percent of the UN's annual budget, which meant a contribution of more than $6 billion in 2009, but said the UN has taken several actions against U.S. interest in the last few years. Among other things, she said the nation pays for the UN's "anti-Israel activities, including the UN Human Rights Council," which she called a "rogues' gallery dominated by human rights violators."