Defund Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, in the words of a Simon and Garfunkel song, they sing of a dream in which ``the world had all agreed to put an end to war.'' And they reached this agreement, apparently, just by signing a single piece of paper.

This dream is just a dream, of course. That is not how things are brought about. That is not how lasting peace occurs. But the dream echoes the stated aspirations that led to the creation and, eventually, the perpetuation of the United Nations. But as history unfolded, the stark reality has not lived up to those lofty aspirations.

We have witnessed failure upon failure, and yet the 20th-century notion of a collective world peace still lingers in the minds of the American foreign policy establishment. It is a notion that believes that, somehow, U.S. participation and leadership within the United Nations is a foundational pillar of our security and our strength.

A glance at the world today, however, reveals the harsh truth: Enduring global peace remains just a dream. While the corridors of the United Nations were designed for diplomacy, it now serves as a place where America's adversaries--people who trample on diplomatic principles and even human dignity itself, to say nothing of national sovereignty--sponsor initiatives that fly in the face of our foundational principles and values.

Just last November, we saw Iran, known for its support of terrorist groups and its systemic targeting of Jewish people, chairing a U.N. human rights event--actually chairing it. Russia and China, nations that challenge our interests and undermine our values at every turn, hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council. China, for its part, also continues to enjoy the benefits of developing nation status, exploiting U.N. programs and other monetary benefits for questionable gain.

Now, the United States, as the U.N.'s largest funder, ends up tacitly supporting these things through its funding. The largest contributor to the U.N.'s budget is the United States. The Biden administration continues to fund, indirectly, groups like Hamas through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known for its anti-Semitic indoctrination.

Similarly, the previous administration halted funding for the United Nations Population Fund due to its support for coercive abortion practices in China.

The bloated bureaucracy of the U.N. epitomizes the very foreign entanglements that our Founding Fathers warned against. The global security environment of today underscores the urgency of reasserting American sovereignty.

The DEFUND Act, which I have introduced this week in the Senate, seeks to end U.S. participation in the United Nations system, ensuring that any future attempts to rejoin would require Senate approval.

Now, detractors argue that U.S. involvement is essential for our security and that absence from the U.N. would somehow diminish our soft power, forcing us to rely solely on military might.

These are misleading distractions. The current U.N. system itself erodes American soft power and compels us to conform our national interest to the whims of the so-called rules-based international order. This fearmongering overlooks the proven value of bilateral relationships, which are the true bedrock of international diplomacy.

At the U.N.'s inception in 1945, President Truman presented a choice between ``international chaos'' and the ``establishment of a world organization for . . . peace.'' Yet, despite the U.N.'s existence, chaos abounds, adversaries leverage their U.N. positions, and the goal of peace is overshadowed by the ambition for supranational governance.

The true hope for a peaceful world lies not in such global institutions but in the strength of our national sovereignty and the use of that strength to forge and continue to foster bilateral relationships around the world.

As William Shakespeare said, ``What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?'' One must truly ask: What does the United Nations seek? Is it truly peace? I think not. Its actions speak for themselves.

Since 1945, the United States has slowly surrendered national sovereignty to the U.N. under the guise of customary international law and under this broad aspirational goal of somehow bringing peace and harmony through this international organization, an international organization that is, itself, utterly untethered from the electoral politics of any country. They very much operate as an island unto themselves once they enter the halls of the U.N.

Now, we in the United States finance a very significant portion of the U.N., much of it voluntarily, with no obligation to do so. Our generosity has been misused to empower terrorists; foment hate; facilitate coercive practices abroad; and in many, many ways, undermine our values.

The DEFUND Act aims to restore American independence from the U.N.'s bureaucracy. It will repeal the foundational Participation Act within the U.N., the U.N. Participation Act of 1945; terminate our contributions and participation in peacekeeping operations; and strip U.N. personnel of diplomatic immunity within the United States. It will also remove the United States from the World Health Organization and prohibit reentry into the U.N. system without the Senate's advice and consent.

It is time that we face reality. The U.N. has long since ceased to be an effective or responsible steward of our resources. It is time for America to lead through strength and sovereignty, not through subservience to an organization that no longer serves our interests-- much less the interests of a realizable, lasting peace.

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