a (su) bo 
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3 
necessary security of tenure, are prepared to make the 
necessary capital investment for such development and 
processing ; and 
“(7) that it is in the national interest of the United 
States to utilize existing technology and capabilities of 
United States mining companies by providing for interim 
legislation which will encourage further efforts to insure 
national access to available deep seabed minerals and to 
provide the means whereby the national program may be 
merged into an international program which evolves 
from negotiations on the law of the sea and is subse- 
quently ratified by the United States. 
““(b) Purposes.—The Congress declares that the pur- 
poses of this Act are— 
“(1) to establish a national program to insure the 
orderly development of certain hard mineral resources of 
the deep seabed, pending the establishment of an inter- 
national regime for that purpose; and 
(2) to insure the establishment of all practicable 
requirements necessary to maintain and enhance the qual- 
ity of the marine environment to the extent that that envi- 
ronment may be affected by deep seabed hard mineral 
mining development. 
“DEFINITIONS 
“Suc. 3. For the purposes of this Act— 
