DOGE-UN: MEDIA PRESENCE

FLASH

US Congress Introduces

DEFUND Act to Withdraw USA from UN

February 20, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act, which calls for the United States' complete withdrawal from the United Nations (UN). This legislation addresses grave issues of national sovereignty and fiscal accountability which have plagued US involvement in the UN. The DEFUND Act is co-sponsored by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.). House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas) are introducing the companion bill in the House of Representatives.

“The United Nations has betrayed our trust time and time again, and we cannot continue to be their cash cow and undermine our own national security interests,” said Senator Blackburn. “The DEFUND Act would stop all forms of U.S. financial support to the UN and hold this wayward organization accountable for placating Hamas terrorists and the Chinese Communist Party.”

“No more blank checks for the United Nations. Americans' hard-earned dollars have been funneled into initiatives that fly in the face of our values, enabling tyrants, betraying allies, and spreading bigotry," said Senator Lee. "With the DEFUND Act, we're stepping away from this debacle. If we engage with the UN in the future, it will be on our terms, with the full backing of the Senate and an iron-clad escape clause.”

“From UNRWA actively protecting Hamas and acting against our ally Israel, delayed condemning Hamas, to China being elected to the “Human Rights Council," to the propagation of climate hysteria, covering for China's forced abortion and sterilization programs, the UN's decades-old, internal rot once again raises the questions of why the United States is even still a member or why we're wasting billions — indeed, $12.5 billion in 2021 — every year on it,” said Representative Roy.  “The UN doesn’t deserve one single dime of American taxpayer money or one bit of our support; we should defund it and leave immediately. I am proud to lead this critical effort alongside Mike Lee and Mike Rogers.”

BACKGROUND

Key Elements of the DEFUND Act:

• Repeals critical acts that bind the U.S. to the UN, such as the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 and the United Nations Headquarters Agreement Act.

• Ceases all forms of U.S. financial support to the UN, including assessed and voluntary contributions.

• Prohibits any U.S. involvement in UN peacekeeping operations.

• Revokes diplomatic immunity for UN officials within the United States.

• Formalizes withdrawal from the World Health Organization and other UN conventions.

• Sets stringent conditions for any future engagement with the UN, requiring Senate approval with explicit withdrawal provisions.

The introduction of the DEFUND Act comes in response to years of unchecked bureaucratic expansion and financial misuse by the UN at the expense of American taxpayers. 

You can read the one-pager from Senator Mike Lee’s Office HERE. 

You can read the bill text HERE.

SOURCE: News release from the office of US Senator Marsha Blackburn