745 



These recent hearings records on budgetary justification for in- 

 ternational organizations do not deal with the nature and merit of 

 the substantive work of the specialized agencies, including WHO, or 

 with the inter-Ajnerican agencies, including PAHO. Attention is 

 largely focused on increasing budgets and balance of payments; this 

 concern applies to all of the international organizations, regardless of 

 their somewhat different objectives, achievements, and potential. It 

 would appear that the pre^'ailing view holds the United States to be- 

 over-assessed in the first place, and overcommitteed to ever-increasing 

 organizational budgets : assessments from multilateral enterprises are 

 viewed as one more form of foreign aid. 



International health has not been spared from the growing doubts 

 about costs, about lack of control over the budgets, and about tiie desire 

 to restrict the outflow of 'American dollars. Indeed, international 

 health organizations were most often singled out for budgetary dis- 

 cussion in the Senate and House Appropriations Hearings. The gen- 

 eral climate under which international health organizations are con- 

 sidered can be seen in the following items of testimony. 



IN THE SENATE 



Convinced as we [in the Department of State] are of the 

 benefits of U.S. participation in international organizations, 

 we are nevertheless seriously concerned about the increases in 

 their budgets. I can assure you that we have fully taken into 

 account the views expressed by the Senate Appropriiitions 

 Committee last year and that we have made every effort to 

 keep the budget as low as possible."^ * * * 



In the World Health Organization, which has the largest 

 assessed budget of any of the specialized agencies, we [State] 

 concerted throughout the budget process with other major 

 contributors to keep down the budget. I would point out that 

 for the fii^t time the WHO Assembly, as a result of U.S. 

 leadership, rejected the Director-General's proposed budget. 

 However, we were unable to obtain support for an acceptable 

 compix)mise figure and consequently we voted against the 

 budget as adopted.^"^ * * * 



We also, of course, sought to restrain budget increases in 

 the organizations outside of the UN system. In the Pan Amer- 

 ican Health Organization, the strong approaches of the 

 Ignited States to other members last year resulted in a re- 

 duction in the original budget proposed by the Director. This 

 was the first time in at least fifteen yeare that the Directing 

 Council of that organization was prevailed upon to vote for 

 a budget smaller than the Director's request.^^- * * * 



Senator McClellan: With respect to the agreements that 

 are now in force, have you re-evaluated them and found 

 where our participation could be modified or reduced ? ^'^ 



Mr. De Palma. AVe have made a continuous check on 

 them.-"^ 



i™ Ibid., pp. 43.5-434. 

 1" Ibid., pp. 43.5-4.36. 

 !«! Ibid., p. 436. 

 "3 Ibid., p. 44.5. 

 I'Mbid., p. 445. 



97-4on n - 77 



