HR 519
2-9-11, On Motion to Suspend Rules and Pass,
Bill Failed House (2/3 Necessary), 259-169
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 519
To secure the return to the United States the $179 million overpaid
into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund as of December 31, 2009, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 8, 2011
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To secure the return to the United States the $179 million overpaid
into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund as of December 31, 2009, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `United Nations Tax Equalization Refund Act of
2011'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Approximately $180 million in United States taxpayer funds overpaid
to the United Nations remain in the hands of the United Nations because
the United States has not requested the return of those funds.
(2) The funds were paid into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund (TEF),
which is used to reimburse United Nations staff members subject to United
States income taxes for the cost of those taxes.
(3) In recent years, the TEF has taken in considerably more money than it
has paid out, with the United States apparently overpaying into the TEF
by $52.2 million in the 2008-2009 timeframe alone.
(4) According to the United Nations Financial Report and Audited Financial
Statements released on July 29, 2010, `As of 31 December 2009, an amount
of $179.0 million was payable to the United States of America pending instructions
as to its disposition.'.
(5) That balance was allowed to accrue notwithstanding United Nations Financial
Regulation 4.12, which states that any such surpluses `shall be credited
against the assessed contributions due from that Member State the following
year.'.
(6) Allowing the United Nations to regularly overcharge the United States
and to retain those overpayments, or to spend them on wholly unrelated activities,
is a disservice to American taxpayers and a subversion of the Congressional
budget process.
SEC. 3. REFUND OF UNITED STATES TAXPAYER DOLLARS FROM THE UNITED NATIONS
TAX EQUALIZATION FUND.
(a) Statement of Policy- It shall be the policy of the United States--
(1) to direct the United Nations to return to the United States the $179,010,326
overpaid into the United Nations Tax Equalization Fund (TEF) as of December
31, 2009, which the United Nations itself has identified as `payable to
the United States of America';
(2) to use the voice and vote of the United States to press the United Nations
to reform its TEF assessment procedures to reduce the repeated discrepancies
between TEF income and expenditures; and
(3) to annually instruct the United Nations to return to the United States
any TEF surplus funds payable to the United States.
(b) Certification and Withholding- Until the Secretary of State submits to
the appropriate congressional committees a certification that the United Nations
has returned to the United States the $179,010,326 identified by the United
Nations in its July 29, 2010 Financial Report as payable to the United States,
the United States shall withhold $179,010,326 from the United States contribution
to the regularly assessed biennial budget of the United Nations.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
(1) the term `appropriate congressional committees' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations
of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations
of the Senate; and
(2) the term `United Nations Tax Equalization Fund' or `TEF' means the fund
established under the provisions of United Nations General Assembly Resolution
973 (December 15, 1955) to equalize to net pay of United Nations staff members.
END
