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1 1 (August 14, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbatn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Congressional Research Service ~~Info rmig th legislative debate since 1914 0 Updated August 14, 2019 United Nations Issues: U.S. Funding of U.N. Peacekeeping The United States is the single largest financial contributor to U.N. peacekeeping activities. Congress authorizes and appropriates U.S. contributions, and it has an ongoing interest in ensuring such funding is used as efficiently and effectively as possible. The United States, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, plays a key role in establishing, renewing, and funding U.N. peacekeeping operations. For 2019, the United Nations assessed the United States share of U.N. peacekeeping operation budgets at 27.89%; however, since 1994 Congress has capped the U.S. payment at 25% due to concerns that the current assessment is too high. For FY2019, total enacted U.S. funding for U.N. peacekeeping is $1.65 billion. U.N. Peacekeeping Funding The United Nations currently operates 14 U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide, with about 100,000 military, police, and civilian personnel from more than 120 countries. The Security Council adopts a resolution to establish each operation and specifies how it will be funded. In most cases, it authorizes the U.N. General Assembly to create a separate assessed account for each operation to be supported by member states contributions. The General Assembly adopts the scale of assessments for U.N. member contributions to peacekeeping operations every three years. The peacekeeping scale is based on a modification of the regular budget scale, with the five permanent council members assessed at a higher level than for the regular budget. For example, the United States is assessed at 22% of the regular budget; however, its current peacekeeping assessment is 27.89%. Other top contributors include China, Japan, and Germany (Table 1). Table I. Top Financial Contributors to U.N. Peacekeeping, 2019, by Assessment Rate Country Percent Country Percent I. United States 27.89 6. France 5.61 2. China 15.22 7. Italy 3.31 3. Japan 8.56 8. Russia 3.05 4. Germany 6.09 9. Canada 2.73 5. United Kingdom 5.79 10. S. Korea 2.27 Rest of Membership, Total Percent: 19.48 Source: U.N. document, A/73/350/Add. 1, December 24, 2018. Note: Italics represent permanent Security Council members. U.N. members voluntarily provide the military and police personnel for each U.N. mission. Peacekeepers are paid by their own governments, which are reimbursed by the United Nations at a standard rate determined by the Assembly (about $1,428 per soldier per month).The U.N. peacekeeping financial year runs from July 1 to June 30; the Assembly usually adopts resolutions to finance peacekeeping missions in late June. The total approved budget for the current peacekeeping year is $6.51 billion. Operations with the highest annual budgets are UNMISS (South Sudan), at $1.18 billion; MINUSMA (Mali), at $1.13 billion; and MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of the Congo), at $1.01 billion. U.S. Policy Background and Context: The Enacted U.S. Cap In the early 1990s, the U.S. peacekeeping assessment was over 30%, which many Members of Congress found too high. In 1994, Congress set a 25% cap on funding for all fiscal years after 1995 (P.L. 103-236). Over the years, the gap between the actual U.S. assessment and the cap led to funding shortfalls. The State Department and Congress often covered these shortfalls by raising the cap for limited periods and allowing for the application of U.N. peacekeeping credits (excess U.N. funds from previous peacekeeping missions) to fund outstanding U.S. balances. For several years, these actions allowed the United States to pay its assessments to U.N. peacekeeping missions in full. However, since FY2017 Congress has declined to raise the cap, and in mid-2017, the Trump Administration allowed for the application of peacekeeping credits up to, but not beyond, the 25% cap-leading to the accumulation of additional U.S. arrears. Key Accounts and Recent Funding Levels U.S. assessed contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations are provided primarily through the Contributions for International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) account, which is funded through annual State Department-Foreign Operations (SFOPS) appropriations acts. CIPA funds 12 of the 14 U.N. peacekeeping operations, as well as the U.N. criminal tribunals and mission monitoring and evaluation activities. The Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) account, which funds most non-U.N. peacekeeping and regional stability operations, provides assessed contributions to the U.N. Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS). In addition to CIPA and PKO, the Contributions to International Organizations (CIO) account funds two observer missions, UNTSO (Israel and the Palestinians) and UNMOGIP (India and Pakistan), which are funded through U.S. contributions to the regular budget. For FY2020, the President requested $1.13 billion for U.N. peacekeeping through the CIPA account, a 27% decrease from the enacted FY2019 CIPA level of $1.55 billion (Table 2). In its request, the Administration highlighted its commitment to seek reduced costs by reevaluating mandates, design and implementation of peacekeeping missions and sharing the funding burden more fairly with other U.N. members. U.S. peacekeeping funding may fluctuate year-to-year depending on a number of factors, including discrepancies between the aforementioned peacekeeping assessment and https:!crsreports cong --ss-g

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