The House of Representatives today voted down an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Appropriations Act (H.R. 2799) that would have withheld funding from UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a libertarian opponent of the United Nations as well as a strong defender of the U.S. Constitution.
The United States has not been a member of UNESCO since 1984 when President Ronald Reagan canceled the nation’s participation in protest over the organization’s corruption and its history of promoting forced abortions in third-world countries under the guise of “family planning.”
But in an effort to muster U.N support for the Iraq war, President Bush recommitted the United States to membership, which is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1.
The amendment was an attempt to derail the Bush plan to rejoin.
Daniel McAdams, who deals with foreign affairs issues in Paul’s Washington office, said the amendment is just one line and does not specifically mention membership in the controversial organization. It states: “None of the funds made available in this (appropriations) Act may be made available for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).”
“If you don’t pay, you can’t play,” explained McAdams. “If we don’t pony up the funds, we can’t rejoin.”
An e-mail alert sent by the Liberty Committee, which Paul founded, detailed the reasons for staying out of UNESCO and withholding funds from it and asked concerned Americans to contact their representatives in Congress to urge their support.
The group’s e-mail said:
“UNESCO promotes a global tax on the Internet, among many other global taxes.
“UNESCO meddles in the education affairs of its member countries and continues to attempt to construct a global school curriculum for American schools, including radical notions of the family and bizarre sex education programs.
“UNESCO has been fully supportive of the United Nations’ Population Fund in its assistance to China’s brutal coercive population-control program, which includes forced abortions.
“UNESCO has designated 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves in the United States covering more than 70 million acres, without congressional approval. This project has led to the confiscation of private lands and restrictions on the use of public land.
“UNESCO bypasses congressional authority to manage federal lands, including places like the Everglades, by establishing management policies without congressional consultation or approval.
“The UNESCO ‘World Heritage Convention’ has allowed UNESCO to designate some of the most treasured American public monuments to be ‘World Heritage’ sites, such as Independence Hall, the Statute of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Jefferson’s Monticello. It is UNESCO, not the United States government, that develop policies and regulations that control these sites.”
Last week, an amendment by Paul to a foreign-aid bill that would have pulled the U.S. out of the United Nations failed in the House by a vote of 350-74.
Kent Snyder, executive director of the Liberty Committee, said he was disappointed by the vote, but that he and the committee urged Americans not to “confuse disappointment with defeat or surrender.”
“We’re all disappointed,” he said. “But we’re not about ready to give up.”
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