President Joe Biden nominated Courtney Diesel O’Donnell to serve as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with the rank of ambassador.
The Senate confirmed O’Donnell’s nomination on May 15, 2024 by a vote of 49 to 45 (Roll Call 164). We have assigned pluses to the nays because this vote marked the return of the United States to the Paris-based organization, reversing its formal exit by the Trump administration in 2018. Yet rather than merely leaving UNESCO, the United States should fully withdraw from the entire United Nations system. The UN poses one of the greatest threats to U.S. sovereignty and the God-given rights of the American people, as its charter is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution. Congress must pursue a sound, traditional foreign policy of noninterventionism, based on U.S. interests and the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
