Richardson Approved As U.N. Ambassador Helms Presses For Reforms In Exchange For U.S. Back Dues

Rep. Bill Richardson won unanimous confirmation from the Senate Tuesday to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Approval of Richardson, who will resign as Democratic congressman from New Mexico, was never in doubt. But there is less support for Clinton administration proposals to pay more than $1 billion in overdue U.S. dues to the United Nations.

After a brief, one-sided debate lauding Richardson’s self-styled diplomatic efforts as a widely traveled congressman, the Senate voted 100-0 to give him the post vacated by new Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

No objections were raised to the Richardson nomination, either in his three-hour confirmation hearing Jan. 29 or on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Presidential press secretary Mike McCurry said Tuesday that Richardson will bring “a very eloquent voice, a different kind of voice” to U.S. representation in the United Nations.

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate committee, Richardson ran into angry criticism of the administration from committee chairman Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who accused Clinton of trying to bypass his committee with proposals for U.N. funding.

The administration, in proposing in last week’s budget a $100 million appropriation for the next fiscal year in addition to a $921 million supplemental appropriation to pay all back U.N. dues by 1999, denied it was trying to get around Helms’ committee.

Helms, who opened the short debate on Richardson’s nomination with a neutral statement reporting the committee’s favorable action, has advocated that all payments to the United Nations be tied to specific reforms.

Helms, who met with new Secretary-General Kofi Annan during his visit to Washington last month, believes that, if the United States pays back dues prematurely, the United Nations would lack the incentive to make changes.

Richardson, as a congressman, had opposed the Helms-sponsored Cuba sanctions legislation passed in 1996. He told the committee that now the Helms-Burton sanctions are part of the law, he would support them fully.