Congressmen Eliot Engel (D-NY) and David Cicilline (D-RI) spearheaded a letter signed by seventy Members of Congress to Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Rogers requesting full funding for our nation’s UN peacekeeping dues as part of the FY’2020 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill.
In the letter, the Members note that with more than 90,000 personnel serving in 14 missions around the world, UN peacekeeping constitutes the largest deployed multinational military force in the world. These operations help promote our nation’s core security goals and values without requiring the commitment of U.S. troops. They are also a cost-effective investment of taxpayer funds, as UN missions are eight times cheaper overall than U.S. forces acting alone. This is why they have been championed by both Republican and Democratic Administrations.
