U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the U.S. to repay billions of dollars in unpaid dues. But many Congressional Republicans continue to greet the subject with skepticism, questioning the role of the international organization. Should the U.S. pay its dues? After a background report, a Republican and Democrat debate the issue.
KWAME HOLMAN: The deal U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan signed two weeks ago in Baghdad allowed weapons inspectors to resume their work and prevented what was expected to be a massive bombing campaign against Iraq. But from the outset on Capitol Hill the deal was greeted skeptically by Republicans and gave critics of the U.N. one more reason to question the role of the world body. 
SEN. TRENT LOTT, Majority Leader: The Secretary-General is calling the shots. The United States is not. Secretary Albright earlier this week objected to my characterization of this episode as contracting out U.S. foreign policy. With all due respect I stand by that comment because it appears in fact that's what has happened and is happening. KWAME HOLMAN: Over the last several years the United Nations has been criticized mostly by Republicans, both for its missions, and its management. They point to the U.N. peacekeeping effort in Somalia in 1993 that ended in the deaths of 
18 U.S. Army rangers. And they point to the long deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia who were unable to end the fighting there. Last year Kofi Annan replaced Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali as U.N. Secretary-General and promised to institute organizational reforms to reduce what critics described as a bloated United Nations bureaucracy. Kofi Annan: "What United Nations wants is what the U.S. is also wants, a reformed United Nations. One that is effective, efficient, leaner, and relevant to the tasks that member states want to set for us."
KOFI ANNAN: What United Nations wants is what the U.S. is also wants, a reformed United Nations. One that is effective, efficient, leaner, and relevant to the tasks that member states want to set for us. KWAME HOLMAN: The United States is an original member of the United Nations and for years has been responsible for 25 percent of the U.N. budget. Today, however, the U.S. is way behind on its contributions owes the world body some $1 billion according to the most conservative estimates. And here on Capitol Hill Republicans, who control the purse strings, don't appear to be in a hurry to pay off that debt.PRESIDENT CLINTON: It's long past time to make good on our debt to the United Nations. 
KWAME HOLMAN: During his State of the Union address in January, President Clinton urged Congress to appropriate the money owed the U.N.. And in the weeks since, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has made several trips to Capitol Hill to lobby for the payment. SEC. MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Let me tell you frankly that if we are not able to pay our U.N. arrears soon, our legs will truly be cut out from under us at the U.N. We are told daily by our best allies and friends that U.S. credibility will be sadly diminished. That will hurt America, and cost Americans. KWAME HOLMAN: Sometimes on Capitol Hill factors not directly related to a piece of legislation, nonetheless, determine its fate. In the case of United Nations funding that factor is something called the Mexico City provision. 
SEN. JESSE HELMS: and Mexico City around this place is shorthand for prohibiting U.S. taxpayers' dollars from being used by foreign organizations for abortions. KWAME HOLMAN: President Reagan adopted that provision as part of U.S. foreign policy following a conference in Mexico City in 1984. The policy banned U.S. financial support for international family planning groups that perform or promote abortions, even if they used their own funds. President Clinton overturned that ban three days after he took office in 1993. Now, despite the President's threatened veto, congressional Republicans are trying to re-establish the Mexico City Policy by attaching to the same legislation that contains the money owed the United Nations. At a hearing last month Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms urged Sec. Albright to at least seek a compromise with Republicans on the Mexico City policy. SEN. JESSE HELMS: Because you're not going to get any United Nations money; and it seems to me that the president ought to reconsider what I think some of his assistants have decided in his stead.
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