The Republican Study Committee is set Wednesday to introduce a bill calling for auditing the State Department’s use of taxpayer dollars sent to multilateral and international organizations.
“The U.S. lacks a comprehensive analysis of how taxpayer dollars are being used by international organizations and whether those funds are being used to advance U.S. interests,” Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., a member of the Republican Study Committee’s National Security & Foreign Affairs Task Force, explained in a statement provided to The Daily Signal.
The Republican Study Committee is the largest caucus of conservative GOP lawmakers in the House.
According to Bergman, the U.S. currently does not have any comprehensive analysis of how money sent to entities such as the United Nations is being used and whether the funding is being used to further U.S. interests.
“The U.S. gives billions of dollars to entities like the United Nations, but we have no reporting on what happens to that money or where it ultimately ends up being spent,” said Bergman, who was elected to a third term last month.
“It’s time we have a transparent, independent audit of these funds to ensure better oversight of and proper implementation of taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Auditing the State Department’s use of taxpayer funding of multilateral and international organizations was a policy recommendation in the committee’s June National Security Strategy, which stated that “unlike what Democrats may profess, foreign assistance should not be administered as charity, but must be directly connected to the goals of U.S. foreign policy.”
Also according to that National Security Strategy, “foreign assistance programs are sprawling and uncoordinated with 12 departments, 26 agencies, and more than 60 offices of the federal government being responsible for its implementation.”
The bill asks the secretary of state “to establish a unit within the Office of the Inspector General to audit United States contributions to multilateral and international organizations.”
It also directs the secretary to create, as part of the Office of Audits of the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General, a ‘‘Unit to Audit U.S. Contributions to Multilateral and International Organizations.’’
By Dec. 31 of each year, that unit would be directed to submit to the secretary an audit of U.S. contributions to multilateral and international organizations during the immediately preceding fiscal year.
“[The Republican Study Committee’s] National Security Strategy made very clear that U.S. taxpayer dollars supporting the U.N. and other international organizations should not be diverted to rogue regimes and state sponsors of terrorism,” Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., outgoing chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told The Daily Signal in a statement.
That’s why I’m proud to join Rep. Bergman in introducing the International Spending Transparency Act. Under this legislation, we can address this issue head-on by establishing a new unit in the State Department to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely abroad and in America’s best interest.
