Madam President, I am pleased to see that Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai have been confirmed to the Federal Communications Commission. They are both highly qualified, and it is unfortunate that the FCC's stubborn refusal to respond to my…

750,000 incidence is still way too many.

If we can't access rare earth materials on the floor of the sea, we are going to be put at a significant competitive disadvantage.

What impact has the failure to ratify had on our ability to influence the actions on the Continental Shelf Commission and the international seabed activity?

We have got to get our act together as a country in our own permitting processes, in our own political will, and ability to produce our own energy.

This is a vitally important issue, and we are spending time on a subject matter that I think we sometimes don't do enough on in Washington.

The last time I checked, the Renminbi is up 31.4 percent against the dollar, so they should go home and declare victory.

The currency constituency in the U.S. Senate, led initially by Senators Schumer and Graham in 2005, has been very focused on this ever since.

Bipartisan support for such a measure initially surfaced when Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham reached across the ideological and party divide to cosponsor the first Chinese currency bill in 2005.

the entire dangerous, risky, and provocative process could be avoided in some circumstances by ratifying this treaty and being able to contest excessive claims in the ways it allows us to do.

I am concerned that the debate over this treaty is locked in a framework that is decades out of date.

So when we have successfully reasserted customary international law and leave a contested area, do these other nations sometimes then reassert their excessive claim?

In your view, does this put our allies at any risk, in terms of their confidence about our willingness and ability to fight for their territorial issues?

I just have to question your assertion that... U.S. accession to the Convention has become essential to the successful execution of the Navy's global mission.

the real risk we face is letting others draw boundaries, set rules, and advance their economic interests without the United States having a seat at the table.

Secretary Panetta said clearly at the last hearing we never give up our right to self-defense.

If the United States did not contest an excessive claim through either routine or special freedom of navigation operations, are we at some risk that that would set a new precedent?

freedom of navigation operations, which are provocative to nations, some of which are our allies, some of which are our opponents, have steadily increased in number, in seriousness, in cost and complexity over recent years.