This vote was on an amendment by Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., that would prohibit funds from being used to pay dues to the United Nations if it imposes any tax on U.S. citizens.  The amendment was offered to the bill that funds most domestic agencies in fiscal 2009.

Inhofe said a similar prohibition has been the law since President Clinton was in office, but was recently removed.  Inhofe said the language had broad support at the time and nobody knows why it was taken out, “but in this law that language was taken out that has been there for 13 years. So I encourage us to support this amendment to put that language back.”

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Inhofe’s amendment is unnecessary.

“The Senator from Oklahoma asked an obvious question: Why is this language not in there? Nobody wanted it. No Republican asked for it. No Democrat asked for it. The Bush administration didn’t ask for it. We constantly remove outdated, unnecessary language from these bills to clean them up,” Leahy said.  “The United Nations has no power to tax the United States or any person in the United States. It would be like saying we want to pass a law that says that if the U.N. were to launch several divisions of soldiers against us, we will cut off their funding. They can’t do that any more than they can impose a tax against us. They are not a taxing organization.”

By a vote of 43-51, the amendment was rejected.  Every Republican present voted for the amendment.  All but four Democrats present voted against the amendment.  The end result is that the bill went forward without an amendment that would have stipulated that no money can be paid to the United Nations if it tries to impose a tax on U.S. citizens.