[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  SENSE OF THE CONGRESS RESOLUTION THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT 
                    RATIFY THE LAW OF THE SEA TREATY

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 10, 2005

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce a Resolution expressing 
the Sense of the Congress that the United States should not ratify the 
Law of the Sea Treaty (``LOST'').
  The Law of the Sea Treaty was conceived in the early 1970s by the 
``New International Economic Order,'' a United Nations political 
movement designed to transfer wealth and technology from the industrial 
nations to communist and undeveloped nations. President Ronald Reagan 
recognized the threat this treaty would pose to America's sovereignty 
and economic interests and rightly rejected the Treaty in 1982.
  Treaty proponents acted again in the 1990s, offering a separate 
``Agreement'' that purported to amend the Treaty. This ``corrected 
treaty'' was also deemed unacceptable by the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee in 1994. Now we are once again facing a terribly flawed 
treaty that will hand over more of our sovereignty to a corrupt United 
Nations--just at a time when the extent of the United Nations' 
corruption is becoming more evident through the oil for food scandal in 
Iraq.
  What is specifically wrong with the Law of the Sea Treaty?
  The Law of the Sea Treaty will deem the oceans of the Earth as the 
``Common Heritage of Mankind.'' The Treaty dictates that oceanic 
resources should be shared among all mankind. The effect of this will 
be U.N. control over the world's seabeds--a full 70 percent of the 
earth's surface.
  The Law of the Sea Treaty will also create, for the first time in 
history, an international body with the authority to collect taxes from 
American citizens. It is truly a U.N. global tax. This will come about 
as a fee on private enterprise and nation states from seabed mining, 
offshore oil platforms, and other raw material recovery activities. 
These fees will first be paid by the governments of the signatory 
states, which will then have the burden of collecting the monies back 
from the private enterprises engaged in seabed mining activities.
  This treaty will create a Law of the Sea Tribunal, which will claim--
and already has claimed--jurisdiction over the onshore as well as 
within the territorial sea or economic zones of coastal nations. This 
U.N. Tribunal could very well rule in a manner contrary to U.S. 
military, counterterrorism, and commercial interests.
  Mr. Speaker, the Law of the Sea Treaty is a perfect example of 
``taxation without representation'' that our Founding Fathers rebelled 
against. We should under no circumstances surrender one bit of American 
sovereignty or treasure to the United Nations or any other global body. 
I hope my colleagues will join me by co-sponsoring this Sense of the 
Congress legislation and defeating this destructive treaty.

                          ____________________