The Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard clashing views on the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea treaty Thursday, as a long-time critic accused the panel of acting hastily to “rubber stamp” the accord.

Two treaty opponents appeared before the committee along with five supporters one week after senior Bush administration officials urged Senate approval of the treaty, submitted by President Clinton 13 years ago.

During a hearing marked by testy exchanges, Frank J. Gaffney Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy, said he and fellow witness Fred L. Smith Jr., president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, were likely to be the only dissenting voices to be heard.

He said the approach to Senate consideration of the accord amounted to a “rubber stamp,” adding that he had written to the chairmen of eight other Senate committees urging them to hold hearings on the treaty.

Gaffney said the treaty (Treaty Doc. 103-39) largely reflected the preferences of the former Soviet Union, so-called non-aligned countries and “transnational progressives.”

“They have created organizations that will be used to implement that world view — a redistributionist, socialist and fundamentally hostile to the United States view,” Gaffney said.

He said dispute resolution mechanisms in the treaty were stacked against the United States.

The U.S. Navy would be subjected to mandatory resolution of disputes, he said, of which some would be cast as environmental — for example, the impact of navy sonar on whales and dolphins.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who chaired the hearing, denied that the committee was rubber stamping the treaty, noting that the hearing was the panel’s fourth.

Two of these, as well as hearings by the Environment and Public Works, Armed Services and Intelligence committees, were held in 2004.

Menendez rejected Gaffney’s complaints that he was not being given enough time to make his arguments, cutting off Gaffney’s interruption at one point by telling him, “We run the committee.”

Smith told the panel that the treaty provisions covering navigation largely codified existing international law, while its creation of a deep seabed mining regulatory regime would discourage future minerals production.

The treaty mandated global redistribution of resources and technology, created a monopolistic public mining entity and restricted competition, he said.

Gaffney and Smith appeared alongside two treaty supporters, Retired Adm. Vern Clark, a former chief of naval operations, and Bernard H. Oxman, a professor at the University of Miami Law School.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who said he was “here to learn” about the treaty, expressed concern about what he called global warming issues in the treaty, a reference to questions raised last week by Republicans about the treaty’s jurisdiction over land-based pollution.

Oxman said the treaty said little about land pollution and but contained hortatory language to urge states to deal with the problem.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said it was “terribly naive” to believe that a treaty enforcement authority would follow the rules and act fairly.

“To suggest that this creates a predictable framework for us to operate in as a nation concerns me deeply,” he said.

At the United Nations, he said, “well over 90 percent (of the signatories) have voted against the United States over half the time.”

The treaty has 155 member nations.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., also voiced concern about the treaty’s dispute resolution provisions, saying that “in the current international environment, these are very likely to be stacked against us.”

Vitter complained that the hearings on the treaty lacked balance, noting that only two of 11 witnesses were treaty critics. He asked for at least one additional hearing to take testimony from other witnesses, including treaty opponents.

Menendez said he would convey Vitter’s request to committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del.

Following testimony from the four-member panel, the committee heard testimony in support of the treaty from representatives of the U.S. shipping industry, the oil and gas industry and an attorney representing submarine cable interests.