Ed Royce: “I must confess, I do not understand the compulsion to integrate PSI into international law under the United Nations. I…”

“I must confess, I do not understand the compulsion to integrate PSI into international law under the United Nations. I share my ranking member's concern with the fact that weakening the Proliferation Security Initiative is going to have grave consequences for the security of this country. And it is going to have grave consequences for the administration's ability to interdict weapons of mass destruction material. This needlessly empowers the United Nations to weaken our hand. Right now the Proliferation Security Initiative is a Bush administration multilateral initiative aimed at stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, interdicting those weapons of mass destruction on cargo, whether on land or in the air or at sea. It has been around since 2003. It is an aggressive response crafted by then-Under Secretary of Arms Control John Bolton, and it checks increasingly sophisticated proliferators. As the proliferation subcommittee I chaired in the last Congress heard in hearings, PSI has produced results. It has served as a strong deterrent to would-be proliferators, most recently conducting a joint exercise in the Persian Gulf where Iran menaces. PSI cooperation has stopped the transshipment of material and equipment bound for ballistic missile programs in countries of concern, including Iran. It has had a dozen successes, and it was critical in uncovering Libya's WMD program and the A.Q.…”