U.S. Congressional opposition grows to "closing" Washington United Nations Information Centre by Steve Hirsch UN Wire 3:02pm 3rd Nov, 2003   October 31, 2003    WASHINGTON — Congressional and other opposition to the Bush administration's proposal to shut down the U.N. Information Center here continued to grow yesterday and today as the administration stuck by its guns, defending the proposed closure as being in U.N. interests and making fiscal sense.    At issue is a proposal made by U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte Tuesday, when he said, "Closure of the U.N. Information Center in Washington, D.C., would save about $1 million."    Senator Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the office "an invaluable resource for members and staff."  Closure, he said, would "deny the Hill, and larger international policy community, of key information, research and outreach for the United Nations."    "There's no other office, that I am aware of, that could fill its integral niche," Biden added.    Representative Tom Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, called the proposal "short-sighted and completely unacceptable."    "The UNIC is the U.N.'s embassy to the nation's capital; it raises awareness of the world body's work and provides the media, the public and political decision-makers a central point for information about the great variety of United Nations activities around the globe," Lantos said.    "There is no substitute for the services of the UNIC in creating greater understanding of the United Nations in the United States.  How could it possibly be in the Bush administration's interest to suggest that this resource be obliterated?" he added.    A number of congressional sources contacted were harsher in their comments.    The proposal "doesn't pass the laugh test on the Hill," a Congressional staff member said, adding that the UNIC is a "vital resource" for members of Congress and their staffs.     Congress was not briefed on the move in advance, the staff member said, predicting that Congress will not let the proposal go through.    Another congressional source was equally critical, saying the proposal is a bad idea and asking whether the administration wants all of the queries for information and other communications that now go to the UNIC to go to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.    This source called the proposal "half-formed" and said it got "up too high too quickly."    U.N. Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor said that while the United Nations welcomes the "spirit" of the U.S. approach in that it is willing to cut back in this country as well as elsewhere, it does not support shutting down the Washington center.    The center, he said, is involved with more than relations with the U.S. government, but is also important to U.N. relations with U.S. civil society, nongovernmental organizations, media, the Congress and other opinion leaders.    The United Nations, he said, does not believe it would be in its interests to lose that capacity in Washington now.    Meanwhile, the Bush administration defended the proposal yesterday, with State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher saying, "While we welcome the U.N.'s ongoing engagement with Congress, the U.N. Information Center office closure makes fiscal sense."    "We do not see a compelling need to maintain this office when the U.N. already counts an excellent communication system, including the Internet, and U.N. headquarters are located nearby in New York.  Already the European Union and the U.N. Department of Public Information have consolidated more than a dozen U.N. European information centers into one office located in Brussels," he said. Visit the related web page
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