International Herald Tribune

Monday, September 21, 1998

UN Arrears? Clinton Can Pay Today

By Jesse Helms

WASHINGTON - During President Bill Clinton's visit to the UN General Assembly this Monday, he will almost certainly try to gloss over one important fact: With a stroke of his pen, he can pay the American "arrears" to the United Nations - today.

In April, Congress reluctantly wrote the president a check to pay $819 million and also agreed to forgive an additional S107 million in debt that the United Nations owes the United States - a total of $926 million. The bipartisan legislation also would force much needed reform on the United Nations, including cuts in personnel, caps on spending and a reduction of American dues from 25 to 20 percent of the regular UN budget.

Five months have passed, but the check remains uncashed. Despite agreement between Congress and the administration on the "reform for arrears" package, the president has refused to sign the legislation because he objects to one minor provision forbidden groups that accept federal subsidies to use American tax dollars to lobby foreign governments to change their abortion laws.

To protect a few abortion advocates, President Clinton has made clear that he is willing to torpedo this legislation. He should abandon this holier-thanthou charade. Nobody got everything he or she wanted in this bill. I compromised on some provisions, as did many other senators and representatives. So why does the president think he alone is above compromise?

The original abortion language in the bill - which was American policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, but later reversed by Mr. Clinton - barred federal money from going to groups that perform abortions abroad. Last fall, in an effort to strike a deal, House leaders agreed to a watered-down restriction that does nothing more than ban the use of U.S. tax dollars to lobby for chances in foreign abortion laws. Still, the administration balked.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright objected to language in a report accompanying the bill, which she said barred American groups from attending conferences aimed at changing foreign abortion laws. In fact, the language she cited was not part of the bill and was not legally binding.

Nevertheless, in the spring, House leaders compromised again, agreeing to remove the offending part of the report. (Groups can now attend, but cannot sponsor, such conferences.) Today, the abortion language in the legislation is so limited that it represents little more than a symbolic concession to pro-life Republicans. Yet Mr. Clinton doggedly continues to insist that he will not make even a symbolic concession on abortion.

Clearly, in light of his current difficulties, he is desperate to keep the support of groups such as the National Organization of Women and Planned Parenthood. But is the president so desperate that he is really willing to put his political needs ahead of paying the UN arrears? Consider the other important programs that the president will be discarding with a veto:

* The bill includes nearly full financing of the administration's foreign affairs budget request.

* The bill authorizes Radio Free Asia to expand to a 24-hour service and creates Radio Free Iraq and Radio Free Iran.

* The bill authorizes $38 million to support the democratic resistance in Iraq.

* The bill would streamline our government's diplomatic bureaucracy by shutting down the U.S. Information Agency and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and bringing the Agency for International Development under State Department control.

This legislation is the president's last shot this year to pay the arrears. To our friends at the United Nations, I say this: Don't complain to Congress if this year passes without payment. The president has the check in his hand. When you see him Monday, advise him to cash it.

(New York Times Service)

The writer, a Republican of North Carolina, is chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.