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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today issued the following statement after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s business meeting on Samantha Power, nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN):

“The UN can play an important role in global affairs, but without reforms to ensure greater accountability and transparency, its ineffective leadership, ethical abuses, and misspending will remain rampant. While I appreciate Ms. Power’s willingness to serve our country at the United Nations, her responses regarding the need for these key reforms have been unsatisfactory when questioned during the hearing and in subsequent correspondence. It is critical that we be able to ensure that American taxpayer dollars going to the UN are actually advancing our national interests. Our ambassador to the UN should consider this their top priority and support policies that are conducive to such reforms.

“During the same Senate hearing last week, I also questioned Ms. Power about an article in which she referred to ‘crimes’ committed by the U.S.  She failed to distance herself from these statements at the hearing and offered insufficient explanation, leaving me with serious concerns about some of her views. Her responses to both the need for UN reforms and her previous comments about the U.S. have been unsatisfactory for such an important role, which is why I oppose her nomination.”