[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 140 (Thursday, October 9, 1997)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1094-D1096]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
LINE ITEM VETO
Committee on Appropriations:  Committee concluded hearings to examine the 
President's use of the line item veto with regard to the Military 
Construction Appropriations bill for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
1998, after receiving testimony from Maj. Gen. Clair F. Gill, USA, Director 
of Army Budget; Rear Adm. James F. Amerault, USN, Director of Navy Budget/
Fiscal Management; and Maj. Gen. Eugene Lupia, USAF, Civil Engineer, 
Department of the Air Force.
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARD
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Subcommittee on Securities 
concluded oversight hearings to review the Financial Accounting Standards 
Board's proposed standard on derivatives and hedging activities, a rule to 
improve standards of financial accounting and reporting by investors and 
creditors, after receiving testimony from Edmund L. Jenkins, Chairman, 
Financial Accounting Standards Board; Alex J. Pollock, President and Chief 
Executive Officer, Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and William Roberts, 
First Chicago NBD Corporation, both of Chicago, Illinois; and Kenneth L. 
Wolfe, Hershey Foods Corporation, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
GLOBAL TOBACCO SETTLEMENT
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee resumed 
hearings to examine the proposed settlement between State Attorneys General 
and tobacco companies to mandate a total reformation and restructuring of 
how tobacco products are manufactured, marketed, and distributed in America, 
focusing on public health benefits, receiving testimony from John R. 
Seffrin, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia; Ronald M. Davis, 
American Medical Association, and Richard A. Levinson, American Public 
Health Association, both of Washington, D.C.; and M. Cass Wheeler, American 
Heart Association, Dallas, Texas.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
NOMINATION
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee concluded hearings on 
the nomination of M. John Berry, of Maryland, to be Assistant Secretary of 
the Interior for Policy, Management, and Budget, after the nominee, who was 
introduced by Senator Sarbanes and Representative Hoyer, testified and 
answered questions in his own behalf.
NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on National Parks, 
Historic Preservation and Recreation concluded hearings to examine the 
feasibility of using bonding techniques to finance capital projects in the 
National Park System, after receiving testimony from Senator McCain; David 
Hayes, Counselor to the Secretary of the Interior; Dennis Zimmerman, 
Specialist in Public Finance, Congressional Research Service, Library of 
Congress; Henry Lee, Harvard University/Center for Science and International 
Affairs, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Albert C. Eisenberg, National Parks and 
Conservation Association, Washington, D.C.; and Kenneth C. Olson, Goldman, 
Sachs, and Co., New York, New York.
NATO ENLARGEMENT
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee held hearings to examine the 
benefits and risks of the proposal to grant NATO membership to Poland, 
Hungary, and the Czech Republic, receiving testimony from Senator Roth, on 
behalf of the Senate NATO Observer Group and the North Atlantic Assembly; 
Zibgniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic and International Studies, former 
Secretary of Defense, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, American Enterprise Institute, 
former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jonathan Dean, Union of 
Concerned Scientists, and Michael Mandelbaum, Paul H. Nitze School of 
Advanced International Studies/Johns Hopkins University, all of Washington, 
D.C.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE TREATY
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on International Economic 
Policy, Export and Trade Promotion held hearings to examine the legally 
binding obligations and impact on the United States economy of the United 
Nations proposed climate change treaty which will be negotiated in December 
1997 in Kyoto, Japan, receiving testimony from Timothy E. Wirth, Under 
Secretary of State for Global Affairs; Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian 
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Lawrence Chimerine, 
Economic Strategy Institute, and Daniel A. Lashof, Natural Resources Defense

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Council, both of Washington, D.C.; and Mary H. Novak, WEFA, Inc., 
Burlington, Massachusetts.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
CAMPAIGN FINANCING INVESTIGATION
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Committee continued hearings to examine 
certain matters with regard to the committee's special investigation on 
campaign financing, receiving testimony from Mark F. Thomann, former Midwest 
Finance Director, and Richard L. Sullivan, former Deputy Finance Director 
and Finance Director, both of the Democratic National Committee.
  Also, committee approved the issuance of certain subpoenas with regard to 
the committee's special investigation on campaign financing.
  Committee recessed subject to call.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following business items:
  The nominations of Raymond C. Fisher, of California, to be Associate 
Attorney General, Department of Justice, Ronald Lee Gilman, of Tennessee, to 
be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, Richard Conway Casey, 
to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, 
James S. Gwin, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District 
of Ohio, Dale A. Kimball, to be United States District Judge for the 
District of Utah, Algenon L. Marbley, to be United States District Judge for 
the Southern District of Ohio, and Charles J. Siragusa, to be United States 
District Judge for the Western District of New York;
  H.R. 1847, to improve the criminal law relating to fraud against 
consumers, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 1024, to make permanent certain provisions of the Bankruptcy Code 
relating to the adjustment of debts of a family farmer with regular annual 
income;
  S. 1189, to increase the criminal penalties for assaulting or threatening 
Federal judges, their family members, and other public servants;
  S. 1149, to provide for increased education funding by closing certain 
Bankruptcy Code loopholes relating to local property tax revenues which can 
affect the amount of money made available for education, with an amendment 
in the nature of a substitute; and
  S. 900, to provide for sentencing enhancements and amendments to the 
Federal Sentencing Guidelines for offenses relating to the abuse and 
exploitation of children, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute.
  Also, committee began consideration of S. 474, to provide criminal 
penalties against any person who, while engaged in the business of betting 
or wagering, knowingly uses a communication facility for the transmission or 
receipt in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers, information 
assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, or a communication that entitles 
the transmitter or receiver to receive money or credit as a result of bets 
or wagers, but did not complete action thereon, and recessed subject to 
call.
CLINICAL AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE RESEARCH
Committee on Labor and Human Resources: Subcommittee on Public Health and 
Safety concluded hearings to examine support strategies for clinical 
research and alternative medicine research at the National Institutes of 
Health, after receiving testimony from Harold Varmus, Director, National 
Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services; Gordon H. 
Williams, Brigham and Women's Hospital, on behalf of the Clinical Research 
Study Group of the National Institutes of Health, and Alan C. Moses, on 
behalf of the General Clinical Research Center, and David M. Eisenberg, both 
of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, all of Boston, Massachusetts; 
John A. Morris, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, 
Tennessee, on behalf of the Coalition for American Trauma Care; Katrina A. 
Gwinn, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona; Robert R. Rich, Baylor 
College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, on behalf of the Association of 
American Medical Colleges; and James S. Gordon, Georgetown University School 
of Medicine and Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Washington, D.C.
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