A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter Tuesday to the Biden Administration’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to demand that no taxpayer dollars go towards supporting the United Nations’ climate refugee agenda, according to a copy of the inquiry first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The UN International Office of Migration (IOM) recently set a $2.7 billion fundraising goal for 2024 to help migrants displaced by climate change. Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt, along with Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Montana Senator Steve Daines, all of whom are Republicans, penned the letter to USAID Administrator Samantha Power to urge her against allocating agency funding for the program. (RELATED: Three Former ICE Officials Running For Congress Highlight Need For Action On Border)
“We are concerned regarding the United Nation’s International Office of Migration’s (IOM) inaugural Global Annual Appeal for 2024, which set a fundraising goal to fight migration crises for 2024 at $7.9 billion. Despite receiving billions from member countries, the United Nations is once again requesting billions in this new appeal,” the lawmakers wrote.
“In fact, even the United Nations itself agrees that international law doesn’t officially recognize climate refugees or asylees,” they added.
The UN defines climate refugees as those fleeing “persecution, violence and human rights violations occurring in relation to the adverse effects of climate change and disasters.”
TOPSHOT – Palestinian school children raise the victory gesture over a UN flag during a protest at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school, financed by US aid, in the Arroub refugee camp near Hebron in the occupied West Bank on September 5, 2018. (Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)
Schmitt introduced a bill Dec. 13 entitled “No Tax Dollars for the United Nations Climate Agenda Act.” It would bar the use of taxpayer dollars for the UN’s broader climate agenda.
“We the undersigned members have already introduced legislation that will block the United States Government from providing funding for the United Nations climate change agenda. As this legislation moves forward, we remain wary that this Administration will work with the United Nations to circumvent the legislation and provide covert ways to fund the United Nations’ climate agenda. Therefore, we request that this Administration commit to ensuring that no funding—in any manner—goes to the United Nations’ climate agenda,” the lawmakers wrote.