John B. Breaux: “I think today is a sad day for this country with regard to our relations with other countries with whom we negotiate…”

“I think today is a sad day for this country with regard to our relations with other countries with whom we negotiate treaties. In fact, this has been a sad week. This has been a sad Congress because despite the best efforts of many in this administration who have negotiated with friends and allies in other countries around the world for years, indeed decades, this Congress this session failed to follow through and ratify or approve these treaties that have been negotiated in good faith and signed by other countries including the United States. Just this session we failed to enact in this Congress a chemical weapons treaty. Yesterday, I took the floor to lament the fact that this Congress and this Senate has refused to ratify the OECD agreement on shipping, which was negotiated for years and years and years, which our country signed and every country that signed with us expected us to ratify. Indeed, it was a sad week, and today unfortunately once again I say how terribly disappointed I am that apparently the Tuna-Dolphin Treaty, which this and previous administrations have worked on, which this country has signed along with 10 other countries around the world, will not be enacted in this Congress.”