Mr. Chairman, I do not mean to be rude and do not want to interrupt, but we have a vote at 12:30.

You and the men and women who serve with you make us proud to be Americans.

The Senate should enthusiastically affirm the leadership of the United States in this vital area of international relations by giving advice and consent to the Law of the Sea Convention.

If we have a veto, they have a veto. Their interest is very different than ours.

The idea that we get into a rules-based system with other nations that establish some international rules of engagement, theoretically, I think we could have some honest debate on how we come out on that.

But, General, how is it in the interests of the United States to turn the royalties over to an unaccountable international bureaucracy?

We know when we try to deal with the U.N. on sanctions against Iran, not all of the members play by the rules.

this is the first time in history that an international organization, the U.N. in this case, would possess taxing authority over this country.

So why do we need to get into all of this in order to be able to operate our Navy as we have for years around the world?

Mr. President, Senator Sessions and I come to the Senate floor today to discuss the Child Tax Credit Integrity Preservation Act, the bill I introduced last year, to address a real problem with IRS enforcement allowing illegal aliens to…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 577, the Child Tax Credit Integrity Preservation Act, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill…

Mr. President, before the distinguished majority leader has to leave, I would just ask, through the Chair, if we can get some clarification and hopefully come to some consensus, is he suggesting that illegal aliens in the country should…

I would say, through the Chair, thank you for that clarification. We have exactly the same goal in mind, and I believe this approach of the Vitter bill--the House has already passed this approach recently, and its budget outline actually…

Mr. President, if I could respond through the Chair. I absolutely agree with the Senator from Alabama. Too often folks in Washington want to make things overly complicated. Some issues debated in the Congress are complicated. Other issues…

Mr. President, I wish to thank very much my colleague from Alabama for his leadership on the Budget Committee and his leadership on issues such as this. I want to encourage the distinguished majority leader to look at the actual details of…

In 2009 and 2010, though discussions occurred on Law of the Sea within the Obama administration, passing the Convention was not accorded a high priority.

Thank you again, Madam Chair, for this hearing.

I am proud to cosponsor your Child Protection Training Act, and I would like to recognize all the hard work you have put into that bill.