Lateefah Simon: “I am pleased with the negotiations that have taken place with Senator Hollings, Senator Hatfield, Senator Biden, Senator…”

“I am pleased with the negotiations that have taken place with Senator Hollings, Senator Hatfield, Senator Biden, Senator Gramm, and others. They have improved this bill. Let me add one concern I do have. This bill authorizes $250 million for U.N. peacekeeping. The request from the President was $445 million. The House figure--in most areas the House is, frankly, worse than the Senate--the House figure is $425 million. Again, our figure is $250 million. The authorization figure from the Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator Helms, is $445 million--and we have $250 million here. This is on top of what we have been doing to not pay our dues in the United Nations. We are the No. 1 deadbeat in the world. Yesterday morning's New York Times has a story 'To Pay Some Debts, U.N. Will Try Borrowing From World Bank.' We owe $1.2 billion to the United Nations. They would not have to be going to the World Bank if we paid our bills.”