The United Nations is in the final stages of obtaining approval to build a new high-rise on the Robert Moses Playground, located near the U.N. headquarters in New York City. The building, excluding the price of land and security, is estimated to cost $350–$475 million and would provide a home for U.N. offices that are currently dispersed throughout New York.

Heritage Foundation fellow Brett Schaefer points out that taxpayers could be on the hook for a large portion of the new building’s cost beyond the 22 percent of the U.N.’s budget they currently foot the bill for.

“[C]onstructing a second U.N. building would likely have significant financial implications for the U.S. federal government, which pays 22 percent of the U.N. regular budget and would likely shoulder increased payments to the U.N. in future years resulting from costs associated with the project,” Schaefer wrote in a September policy paper. “Congress has yet either to hold hearings on or to examine the details of this plan. Nor is it clear that the Obama Administration has asked for or been provided detailed information on this project.”