The DEFUND Act
By: Michaeljon Murphy
Director of Communications
Constitution Party of Wisconsin
In February of this year, Rep. Chip Roy [R-TX], introduced the Disengaging Entirely From the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act of 2025. It was a reintroduction of his bill from 2023. The bill seeks to implement a number of laudable goals:
- It terminates the United States’ membership in the UN.
- It repeals the United Nations Headquarters Agreement Act.
- It forbids any future payments to the UN or any affiliated body.
- It mandates that the US may not participate in UN peacekeeping operations.
- It repeals diplomatic immunity from UN officials.
- It repeals participation in the World Health Organization.
- It ends participation in any UN conventions and agreements.
- It forbids the president from rejoining without the permission of the Senate.
Languishing in Committee
UN Headquarters
Jakub Hałun, CC, via Wikimedia Commons
The bill (H.R. 1498) was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs upon introduction, and has apparently languished there since. I am glad to see the fight still going on, even though there are sadly few in Congress to join in the battle. Our friend Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center has been part of the fight against the UN’s global governance schemes for some time. In a recent letter, he recounts some of the history.
In the late 1990s, I worked with Congressman Ron Paul as he produced the original bill to get the U.S. out of the UN. I organized a national mail program to build support for the bill.
Finally, on September 7, 2000, Rep. Paul and I organized a national news conference in the U.S. Capital building. It was carried live on CSPAN.
At the news conference, my American Policy Center (APC) presented 350,000 signed petitions in support of Rep. Paul’s bill. They weighed more than one and a half tons. The multiple boxes of petitions served as the backdrop behind the speakers during the news conference.
After the news conference, I took the petitions to the office of the Speaker of the House and blocked his door with them!
The DEFUND Act was originally introduced in Congress in the 118th Congress by Rep. Chip Roy and Senator Mike Lee. Of course, it was ignored by the Democrats in control.
As the new 119th Congress began this past January, I presented petitions signed by APC supporters to Rep. Roy’s staff. I also mailed more signed petitions to Senator Lee. The petitions [asked] them to reintroduce the bill in the new Congress.
Help Move This Forward
As mentioned above, the bills have been reintroduced.
| Senate Bill 669 | |
| Sponsor: | Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT] (Introduced 02/20/2025) |
| Latest Action: | Senate – 02/20/2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. |
| H.R. 1498 | |
| Sponsor: | Rep. Roy, Chip [R-TX-21] (Introduced 02/21/2025) |
| Latest Action: | House – 02/21/2025 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. |
Rep. Chip Roy
U.S. Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The House bill has 17 co-sponsors, including Rep. Glenn Grothman [R-WI-6th District], the only Wisconsin Representative to do so.
As Tom DeWeese continues to push this bill, please add your voice in support as well. The House chairman for the Committee on Foreign Affairs is Brian Mast [R-FL]. You can contact Rep. Mast at https://mast.house.gov/email to ask him to move on this legislation.
Click here to read the full text of the bill.
Listen to this blog post as an audio file below.