Hank Johnson: “The four treaties underlying this legislation are the cornerstones of an important effort to update international law…”

“The four treaties underlying this legislation are the cornerstones of an important effort to update international law for the post-September 11 era. Two of the treaties, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and the Convention for the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, require party nations to better protect nuclear materials and to punish acts of nuclear terrorism. The two other treaties, amendments to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and the protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms, address the use of ships and fixed platforms in terrorist attacks, as well as the transport of weapons, weapons delivery systems, and terrorist fugitives by sea. The United States signed these treaties in 2005. The Senate passed resolutions of advice and consent on all four in 2008. In an era where we increasingly rely on our allies to combat terrorism, these new treaty obligations are also plain common sense. Members of this committee have been committed to their ratification from the very start. We disagreed with the administration's original legislative proposal only where it asked for far more than was necessary to implement these treaties.…”