[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 59 (Thursday, May 8, 1997)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D452-D453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS--MILITARY CONSTRUCTION
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Military Construction 
concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 1998 
for Army and certain defense agencies' military construction programs, 
after receiving testimony from Robert M. Walker, Assistant Secretary of 
the Army; Gary Robinson, Command Engineer, U.S. Special Operations 
Command; Brig. Gen. Robert G. Claypool, USA, Deputy Assistant Secretary 
of Defense; Frederick N. Baillie, Executive Director of Business 
Management, Defense Logistics Agency; and Bruce M. Carnes, Deputy 
Director for Resource Management, Defense Finance and Accounting 
Service.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported 238 
military nominations in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee ordered 
favorably reported, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, S. 
462, to reform and consolidate the public and assisted housing programs 
of the United States, and to redirect primary responsibility for these 
programs from the Federal Government to States and localities.
AUTHORIZATION--HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRANSPORTATION
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine concluded hearings on 
proposed legislation authorizing funds for programs of the Hazardous 
Materials Transportation Act, focusing on safety issues, after 
receiving testimony from Kelley S. Coyner, Deputy Administrator, and 
Alan Roberts, Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety, 
both of the Research and Special Programs Administration, Department of 
Transportation; Robert Chipkevich, Chief, Pipeline and Hazardous 
Materials Division, National Transportation Safety Board; Charlotte R. 
Lane, West Virginia Public Service Commission, Charleston; and Cynthia 
Hilton, Association of Waste Hazardous Materials Transporters, and 
Clifford J. Harvison, National Tank Truck Carriers, Inc., both of 
Alexandria, Virginia.
ELECTRIC UTILITIES DEREGULATION
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee met to further 
discuss proposals to advance the goals of deregulation and competition 
in the electric power industry, focusing on the effects of competition 
on fuel use and types of fuel generation, receiving testimony from 
Donald W. Niemiec, Union Pacific Resources Group, Fort Worth, Texas; 
Samuel K. Skinner, Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago, Illinois; 
Steven F. Leer, Arch Mineral Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri, on 
behalf of the National Mining Association; George Minter, Pacific 
Enterprises, Los Angeles, California; Brent Allen, Alpar Resources 
Inc., Perryton, Texas, on behalf of the Independent Petroleum 
Association of America; Lawrence W. Plitch, Wheelabrator Technologies 
Incorporated, Hampton, New Hampshire, on behalf of the Integrated Waste 
Services Association; Julie A. Keil, Portland General Electric Company, 
Portland, Oregon, on behalf of the Industry Coalition for Hydropower; 
and Dede Hapner, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, 
California.
  Committee will meet again on Thursday, May 22.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the following business items:
  The Document Agreed Among the States Parties to the Treaty on 
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe CFE of November 19, 1990, adopted 
at Vienna on May 31, 1996 (``the Flank Document''). The Flank Document 
is Annex A of the Final Document of the first CFE Review Conference 
(Treaty Doc. 105-5), with 14 conditions;
  The nominations of Jeffrey Davidow, of Virginia, to be a Member of 
the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation, Stuart E. 
Eizenstat, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary of State for Economic, 
Business and Agricultural Affairs, Thomas R. Pickering, of New Jersey, 
to be Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Karen Shepherd, 
of Utah, to be United States Director of the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development, Letitia Chamber, of the District of 
Columbia, to be a Representative of the United States to the Fifty-
first Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and 
Prezell R. Robinson, of North Carolina, and James Catherwood Hormel, of 
California, each to be an Alternate Representative of the United States 
to the Fifty-first Session of the United Nations, and certain Foreign 
Service Officers' appointment and promotion lists;
  S. 342, to extend certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities to 
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices;
  S. Res. 58, to state the sense of the Senate that the Treaty of 
Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan is 
essential for furthering the security interest of the United States,

[[Page D453]]

Japan, and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, and that the 
people of Okinawa deserve recognition for their implementation;
  S. Con. Res. 6, expressing concern for the continued deterioration of 
human rights in Afghanistan and emphasizing the need for a peaceful 
political settlement in that country, with an amendment in the nature 
of a substitute; and
  S. Con. Res. 21, congratulating the residents of Jerusalem and the 
people of Israel on the thirtieth anniversary of the reunification of 
that historic city.
TELEVISION PROGRAMMING
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight of 
Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia 
concluded oversight hearings to discuss the influence of certain 
television programming on children's language development, reading 
skill, attention span, and attitudes toward violence, sexuality, and 
other behaviors, and the Federal Government's role in improving the 
content of programming, after receiving testimony from L. Brent Bozell 
III, Parents Television Council/Media Research Center, Alexandria, 
Virginia; Sarah S. Brown, National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 
David Murray, Statistical Assessment Service, and Elayne Bennett, Best 
Friends Foundation, all of Washington, D.C.; Jane D. Brown, University 
of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Chapel 
Hill; Laurie Humphries, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, 
Lexington, on behalf of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent 
Psychiatry; and Mary Anne Layden, Center for Cognitive Therapy/
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following business items:
  The nomination of Joel I. Klein, of the District of Columbia, to be 
an Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice;
  S. 536, to establish a program to support and encourage local 
communities that first demonstrate a comprehensive, long-term 
commitment to reduce substance abuse among youth, with an amendment in 
the nature of a substitute; and
  S. 670, to eliminate the special transition rule for issuance of a 
certificate of citizenship for certain children born outside the United 
States.
CRIMINAL USE OF GUNS
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded hearings on S. 191, to 
require a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for any violent or drug 
trafficking felon having a firearm in his or her possession during the 
commission of a heinous crime, and to review the impact of the Supreme 
Court's 1995 decision in Bailey v. United States on federal drug and 
violent crime prosecutions, after receiving testimony from Senator 
Helms; Kevin Di Gregory, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal 
Division, and Walter C. Holton, Jr., United States Attorney for the 
Middle District of North Carolina, both of the Department of Justice; 
George J. Terwilliger III, McGuire, Woods, Battle, and Boothe, former 
Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and Thomas G. Hungar, 
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, both of Washington, D.C.; Paul F. Evans, 
Boston Police Department, Boston, Massachusetts; Katina M. Johnstone, 
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, New York, New York; and Anthony M. 
Wilson, Chantilly, Virginia.
GPO REFORM
Committee on Rules and Administration: Committee concluded hearings to 
review legislative recommendations on certain revisions to Title 44 of 
the U.S. Code which authorizes the Government Printing Office to 
provide permanent public access to Federal government information, 
after receiving testimony from Sally Katzen, Administrator, Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget; 
Richard L. Shiffrin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal 
Counsel, Department of Justice; Francis J. Buckley, Shaker Heights 
Public Library, Shaker Heights, Ohio; Ben Cooper, Printing Industries 
of America, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia; and Ronald G. Dunn, Information 
Industry Association, Washington, D.C.