Improved technology affects our lives in many positive ways--making our lives easier, more enjoyable and safer.

Mr. Chairman, I want to request that you put my opening statement in the record as though I was here.

The piracy of intellectual property is something that certainly harms those in the industry.

I'd like to thank the Chair, my good friend from New Hampshire, for holding this hearing today.

I am going to miss Senator Hollings' championship of the oceans and sponsoring and supporting programs that protect this valuable resource.

I think our ocean policies have not kept pace with the demands we have put on this.

I want to congratulate Senator Hollings for his vision, helping to launch the Ocean Commission and the development of this important report.

We cannot treat the oceans as bottomless pits and harvest their fisheries at will or pollute them or plunder them.

We have to do something similar for our oceans--create policies geared toward restoration and sustainable things.

The recommendations in the two reports are somewhat different but they both do one thing; they ring the alarm bells very, very clearly.

We're pleased to have you here. Pardon me for being a few minutes late.