Booker Urges Appropriators to Require Administration to Pay Its Member Dues to International Organizations, Including WHO

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), today led 14 of his Senate colleagues in pushing appropriators to include in its 2021 appropriations bill language requiring the Administration to pay the full amount of dues for each international organization that the U.S. is a member of, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a letter to Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the SFRC Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, the lawmakers wrote: “It has never been clearer that global governance structures such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization are critically important. Therefore, we urge that the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee include in the fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill the funds necessary, and bill language requiring the Secretary to use such funds, to pay the full U.S. assessment for each international organization funded in the ‘Contributions to International Organizations’ account.”

“As assessed contributions are required dues shared among member states to pay for the expenses of the organization, any withholding of assessed dues violates our treaty obligations and undermines coordinated responses by member states to the emerging political, humanitarian and economic crises erupting throughout the world,” the lawmakers continued.  “Such language would provide the multilateral institutions of which the U.S. is a member the funding predictability and stability needed to respond.”

The letter was signed by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ed Markey (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Richard Blumethal (D-CT), and Tim Kaine (D-VA).

Full text of the letter is available here.