Political Quotes

“I also ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a separate letter that is signed by Senators Portman and Ayotte stating essentially the same thing. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, July 16, 2012. Hon. Harry Reid, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Leader: Recently, there has been renewed interest in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty completed in 1982 and modified in 1994. After careful consideration, we have concluded that on balance this treaty is not in the national interest of the United States. As a result, we would oppose the treaty if it were called up for a vote. Proponents of the Law of the Sea treaty aspire to admirable goals, including codifying the U.S. Navy's navigational rights and defining American economic interests in valuable offshore resources. But the treaty's terms reach well beyond those good intentions. This agreement is striking in both the breadth of activities it regulates and the ambiguity of obligations it creates. Its 320 articles and over 200 pages establish a complex regulatory regime that applies to virtually any commercial or governmental activity related to the oceans--from seaborne shipping, to drug and weapon interdiction, to operating a manufacturing plant near a coastal waterway. The terms of the treaty are not only expansive, but often ill-defined.…”