Washington, D.C. — March 13, 2017: In response to reports that the Trump administration plans to cut more than half of U.S. funding for the United Nations, Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action, the United States’ largest grassroots peace organization, released the following statement:

“The administration’s plan to cut more than half of U.S. funding for the United Nations is among the most dangerous foreign policy proposals that the administration has put forward.

“If Congress allows it to see the light of day, this obscene plan will devastate the U.N.’s ability to deliver vital humanitarian aid to war torn countries like Syria and Yemen, while undercutting U.N. efforts to facilitate peaceful resolutions to those conflicts. It could also hamper the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) ability to police nuclear agreements like the Iran deal, which could lead to new conflicts.

“If this nightmarish proposal isn’t stopped, U.S. credibility abroad will suffer; efforts to foster stability in the Middle East and undercut violent extremism will suffer; millions of civilians caught up in wars the U.S. is a party to will suffer, and many of them will die.”

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts. The public may learn more and take action at http://www.Peace-Action.org.

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