James Watkins News

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations conducted a hearing on possible ratification by the United States of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Following revisions to the deep seabed mining provisions of UNCLOS, the convention was signed by the United States in 1994, but no action was taken by the Senate toward ratification until now. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Committee Chair, made an opening statement generally supportive of ratification. Admiral James Watkins, USN (ret.) expressed his strong support of ratification. Source: HK Law

The Senate Commerce Committee conducted a Hearing on the newly-released report on U.S. ocean policy. The testimony of all the witnesses, except for that of Admiral James Watkins, USN (ret), Chair of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, is available at the hearing site. All witnesses spoke in favor of the report, although several of the witnesses got very far done in the weeds. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta released a Statement in support of the report. (HK Law)