Cliff Stearns: “My amendment, my colleagues, is simply to say that the United Nations is a very valuable building and the renovations…”

“My amendment, my colleagues, is simply to say that the United Nations is a very valuable building and the renovations that are occurring right now are necessary, but-- Now, the renovations that are occurring on the U.N. ultimately are necessary, but the cost that is occurring is not. There's a huge overrun. I want to be clear that the opposition I have with this amendment is not to obstruct the U.N. from making a safe environment for the workers and the visitors that come there but to encourage reform and use best business practices considering that the taxpayers are funding about a quarter of the amount of money they're spending for renovations. You know, we had a hearing here in Congress looking at what it would cost to build and renovate the United Nations. And they presented a figure. Well, Donald Trump, who's built a lot of hotels, a lot of apartment houses, came in and he said, ``I could do the same thing for half the money.'' That was half the money back when he offered that. So he said using better business practices, he could do it for a lot less money. So I believe my colleagues that the U.N. has had a history of wasting money. Let me give you one example. In 2003, in the Secretary General's bulletin, he banned all smoking in the U.N. Well, the U.N. spent $130,000 on a ventilation system to accommodate smokers in the cafeteria. Well, I'm not clear why they did that.…”