There was a lot of love for the late Congressman Payne -- and for the United Nations, which he cared about -- at an event in Charlotte last night.
A vote on Capitol Hill today shows that Congress wants the Obama administration to productively engage in forthcoming negotiations at the World Conference on International Telecommunications.
Proposed drastic cuts to refugee assistance funding, if approved by Congress, will imperil support for tens of thousands refugees due to be resettled in the United States during the coming fiscal year. That's very bad news for people escaping persecution and war in countries such as Afghanistan, Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Iraq.
Donald Payne will be missed not only in his New Jersey district, but by his other "constituents " -- the dispossessed in Africa and around the world. Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time.
At the dawn of a vote to gut American funding to the United Nations, one member of Congress offers his take about why the United States ought to pay its fair share to the international body.