U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley speaks to reporters after a Security Council meeting in New York. (UN Photo/Cia Pak)

(CNSNews.com) – The Trump administration’s FY 2018 budget request, which includes a significant drop in funding for the United Nations, sent “shockwaves” through the world body, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley agreed Tuesday.

“But I do think that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing,” she added, telling lawmakers it had sent a message that the United States “won’t be taken for granted anymore.”

Testifying before the House Appropriations subcommittee on state and foreign operations, Haley heard repeated concerns about the administration’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Its request for $996.4 million for the account that funds the U.N. regular budget and major U.N. agencies is more than 30 percent less the FY 2017 estimate level of $1.444 billion.

Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), a former chairwoman of the subcommittee, appealed to Haley to “stand firm” on the funding issue.

“Some of the cuts have sent just a shockwave through around the world,” Granger said, with countries wondering whether the U.S. was “stepping back” from its leadership position.

“You mentioned ‘trimming around the edges’ but some of these cuts are massive and they’re just devastating,” she commented.

Haley concurred that “the cuts that the president and the administration proposed did send shockwaves through the United Nations, and it did put everyone on notice.”

“But I do think that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing,” she continued. “I think that if he [President Trump] was intending to send a message, he did. What we saw in return is they all understand that we won’t be taken for granted anymore. They all understand that we expect to find value in the U.N.”

“They all understand that reforms are needed, because it’s been archaic for a while, and that they realize they have to support us in that,” Haley continued. “They do realize that we are now watching the U.N. very closely.”

On the day Haley testified, elsewhere on Capitol Hill U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres met with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to appeal against the proposed budget cuts. Haley is scheduled to appear before that committee on Wednesday, while Guterres’ meetings in Washington will continue through Thursday, his spokesman said.

In her testimony Tuesday Haley acknowledged that there was a gap between the administration’s funding proposal and what Congress expects: “I know that the president’s budget sits in one place and Congress will decide where it’s going to be,” she said.

“I certainly look forward to partnering with the administration and Congress to make sure that you get a budget that you can work with, and I will certainly work with whatever you give to make that happen.”

Haley was questioned by ranking member Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) about the “value” of specific U.N. agencies which have long enjoyed substantial U.S. funding. Lowey cited specifically the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), U.N. Women, the World Food Program (WFP), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

“There’s value in some of those, obviously,” Haley replied. She praised UNICEF’s work among Syrian children displaced by the civil war, the efforts of the WFP whose American head was working for delivery effectiveness, and the work of the IAEA as the international community responds to nuclear threats.

She pointedly did not comment about the “value” of UNFPA, which the Trump administration defunded in April over reported links to China’s coercive birth-limitation policies.

(Earlier, in response to questions by another Democratic member, Haley said the U.S. did not fund UNFPA “because we know that the UNFPA has associations with a Chinese company that does forced sterilization.”)

Haley said that many U.N. agencies “assume that you will always give them money.”

They should be asked “the hard questions,” she said. “We all have to trim around the edges. And we all have to say, ‘Are we spending in a smart way? Are we actually giving the American taxpayers value for their dollar?’”

U.S. taxpayers account for 22 percent of the U.N. regular budget in “assessed contributions” and provide billions of dollars more each year in “voluntary contributions.” Together the funding amounts to $7-8 billion annually in recent years.

The U.S. also contributes almost 28.5 percent of the separate U.N. peacekeeping budget.

The administration’s proposed budget for FY 2018 also includes a significant cut to peacekeeping account – $1.196 billion, compared to the FY 2017 estimate of $2.45 billion.