Taking Action on the United Nations in 2017-2020

The last full accounting from U.S. government sources of funding provided to the United Nations is many years out-of-date. Conducted in 2010, it states that the United States contributed $7,691,822,000 annually to the United Nations in the form of assessed, voluntary and in-kind contributions.

According to United Nations sources, U.S. contributions to the UN for 2019 totaled $11,076,513,918. This has been further broken down into three categories as follows:

Assessed contributions $3,309,865,754
Voluntary contributions specified ("earmarked") $7,450,806,296 (this includes donations in-kind)
Voluntary contributions not specified ("un-earmarked") $315,841,867.

The U.S. provides 22% percent of the UN's regular budget ("assessed contributions") (and a greater percentage for other UN budgets). In the last full UN accounting of UN system-wide expenditures - an October 2016 report for the fiscal year 2015 - UN system-wide annual expenses totaled $48,076,487,000. In 2017, members of Congress and President Trump have called for a reassessment of U.S. funding to the United Nations to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are utilized in a way that is consistent with American values and interests.

Additionally, in the aftermath of the UN Security Council's adoption on December 23, 2016 of resolution 2334, which declared Israel's presence in the historic Jewish homeland and its holy sites a "flagrant violation of international law," members of Congress have introduced a series of bills which seek to hold the UN to account for its discriminatory treatment of the Jewish state.

Members of civil society have also launched a series of initiatives challenging the current relationship of the United States with the UN and promoting a democratic multilateral alternative.