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[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 268 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 268

  To express the sense of the Congress that the United States should 
refrain from signing the seabed mining agreement relating to the Law of 
                            the Sea Treaty.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 19, 1994

  Mr. Fields of Texas submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 
  To express the sense of the Congress that the United States should 
refrain from signing the seabed mining agreement relating to the Law of 
                            the Sea Treaty.

Whereas many of the minerals underlying the seabed have strategic and military 
        importance to the United States;
Whereas the Law of the Sea Treaty will come into force on November 16, 1994, 
        having been ratified to date by sixty-one countries, none of which is 
        industrialized;
Whereas a new seabed mining agreement amending the Law of the Sea Treaty will be 
        open for signature on July 29, 1994, and the United States will sign the 
        agreement;
Whereas the Law of the Sea Treaty, even as amended, continues to discriminate 
        against the United States and our industrialized allies, is antithetical 
        to business interests and will discourage United States investment in 
        seabed mining;
Whereas signature of the agreement will bind the United States provisionally to 
        the seabed mining agreement and portions of the Law of the Sea Treaty 
        for up to four years, even absent Senate ratification of the agreement 
        and the Law of the Sea Treaty;
Whereas this provisional application will force the United States to finance 25 
        percent of the operations of the large bureaucracy created by the 
        Treaty, including the International Seabed Authority, which will 
        eventually support a direct competitor to United States' and private 
        mining interests, and distribute revenues from seabed mining to 
        developing countries and groups of national liberation;
Whereas provisional application will coerce United States seabed miners to 
        participate in the regime by filing mining claims and paying quarter 
        million dollar exploration and exploitation application fees to the 
        International Seabed Authority;
Whereas the plain language of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 
        prohibits the participation by the United States in an international 
        organization and other international activities for which provision has 
        not been made by any treaty for longer than one year without approval of 
        Congress; and
Whereas possible ultimate failure by the United States to ratify the Law of the 
        Sea Treaty will cause chaos for the United States seabed mining 
        industry: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that the United States should 
refrain from signing the seabed mining agreement relating to the Law of 
the Sea Treaty.
                                 <all>
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