[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 1, 1997)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1043-D1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies held hearings to examine 
the findings of a National Cancer Institute report on radioactive 
fallout from atomic weapons tests conducted by the United States 
government in the 1950s, and the incidence of thyroid cancer in the 
State of Iowa, receiving testimony from Richard Klausner, Director, 
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of 
Health and Human Services; Andrea Holden McGuire, Staff Physician, VA 
Medical Center (Des Moines, Iowa), Department of Veterans Affairs; 
Joseph L. Lyon, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Jan Beyea, 
Consulting in the Public Interest, Lambertville, New Jersey; and 
Timothy J. Connor, Energy Research Foundation, Spokane, Washington.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
NOMINATION
Committee on Armed Services: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nomination of Jacques Gansler, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of 
Defense for Acquisition and Technology, after the nominee testified and 
answered questions in his own behalf.
NOMINATION
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
hearings on the nomination of William E. Kennard, of California, to be 
a Member of the Federal Communications Commission, after the nominee, 
who was introduced by Senator Moseley-Braun, testified and answered 
questions in his own behalf.
NATIONAL MEMORIAL/WILD HORSES PRESERVATION
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on National 
Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation concluded hearings on S. 
940, to provide for a study of the establishment of Midway

[[Page D1044]]

Atoll as a national memorial to the Battle of Midway, and H.R. 765, to 
ensure maintenance of a herd of wild horses in Cape Lookout National 
Seashore in North Carolina, after receiving testimony from Senator 
Helms; Representative Jones; Maureen Finnerty, Associate Director for 
Park Operations and Education, National Park Service, and John Rogers, 
Deputy Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both of the Department 
of the Interior; Daniel I. Rubenstein, Princeton University, Princeton, 
New Jersey; James M. D'Angelo, Rockville, Maryland, and Rear Adm. 
Edward Feightner, USN (Ret.), Arlington, Virginia, both on behalf of 
the International Midway Memorial Foundation, Inc.; and Randall Davis, 
Midway Phoenix Corporation, Cartersville, Georgia; and Edward 
Feightner, Arlington, Virginia.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Finance: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following measures:
  An original bill to extend tariff proclamation authority and fast 
track procedures for congressional consideration of trade agreements; 
and
  An original bill to expand the existing Caribbean Basin Initiative by 
providing for additional tariff preferences on certain products not 
previously covered by the program.
ALGERIA
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South 
Asian Affairs concluded hearings to examine the current situation in 
Algeria, including recent human rights violations, after receiving 
testimony from Ronald E. Newmann, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 
for Near Eastern Affairs; Mary-Jane Deeb, Middle East Institute, 
Washington, D.C.; and Lisa Anderson, Columbia University, New York, New 
York.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee held hearings to examine 
Congress' constitutional role in protecting religious liberty in the 
wake of the Supreme Court's decision in the case of City of Boerne v. 
Flores in which the court held the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 
unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment as applied to the States, 
receiving testimony from Douglas Laycock, University of Texas, Austin; 
Michael Stokes Paulsen, University of Minnesota Law School, 
Minneapolis; Erwin Chemerinsky, University of Southern California Law 
Center, Los Angeles, California; and Daniel O. Conkle, Indiana 
University, Bloomington.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
Committee on Labor and Human Resources: Committee concluded hearings to 
examine certain efforts to expand health insurance coverage, and S. 
729, to amend title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 
1974 to provide new portability, participation, solvency, and other 
health insurance protections and freedoms for workers in a mobile 
workforce, to increase the purchasing power of employees and employers 
by removing barriers to the voluntary formation of association health 
plans, to increase health plan competition providing more affordable 
choice of coverage, and to expand access to health insurance coverage 
for employees of small employers through open markets, after receiving 
testimony from Representative Fawell; Olena Berg, Assistant Secretary 
of Labor for Pension and Welfare Benefits; Glenn Pomeroy, North Dakota 
Department of Insurance, Bismarck, on behalf of the National 
Association of Insurance Commissioners; Patricia C. Gagne, Claim 
Technologies Incorporated, Des Moines, Iowa, on behalf of the Boys and 
Girls Club Workers Association; and Dale Gilliland, American Foam 
Center, Arlington, Virginia; and W. David Helms, Alpha Center, Dan 
Danner, National Federation of Independent Business, Judith G. Waxman, 
Families USA Foundation, and Mary Nell Lehnhard, Blue Cross Blue Shield 
Association, all of Washington, D.C.
SENATE ELECTION
Committee on Rules and Administration: Committee met in open and closed 
session and agreed to a committee motion to terminate the committee's 
investigation of issues with regard to petitions filed in connection 
with a contested United States Senate election held in Louisiana in 
November 1996.
NOMINATION
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nomination of Lt. Gen. John A. Gordon, USAF, to be Deputy Director of 
Central Intelligence, after the nominee, who was introduced by Senators 
Ashcroft and Bond, testified and answered questions in his own behalf.