[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 149 (Thursday, October 30, 1997)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1176-D1179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Armed Services: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nominations of Robert M. Walker,

[[Page D1177]]

of Tennessee, to be Under Secretary of the Army, Jerry MacArthur 
Hultin, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of the Navy, and F. Whitten 
Peters, of the District of Columbia, to be Under Secretary of the Air 
Force, after the nominees testified and answered questions in their own 
behalf.
  Also, on Wednesday, October 29, committee ordered favorably reported 
3,002 military nominations in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine 
Corps, and John E. Mansfield, of Virginia, to be a Member of the 
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, and Jacques Gansler, of 
Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and 
Technology.
IRAN-LIBYA SANCTIONS
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee held 
hearings on the implementation of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (P.L. 
104-172), focusing on whether recent activities involving a Russian 
company's investments in Iran and Libya and its attempt to fund these 
activities on the U.S. market should be sanctioned, receiving testimony 
from Senators McConnell and Brownback; James A. Harmon, President and 
Chairman, Export-Import Bank of the United States; William C. Ramsay, 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, Sanctions and 
Commodities; and R. Richard Newcomb, Director, Office of Foreign Assets 
Control, Department of the Treasury.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BUDGET
Committee on the Budget: Committee concluded hearings to examine how 
spending for international affairs activities is adjusting to changing 
needs in international affairs, and the status of the Government 
Performance and Results Act strategic and performance plans for 
international affairs activities, after receiving testimony from Jacob 
J. Lew, Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget; and Benjamin 
F. Nelson, Director, International Relations and Trade Issues, National 
Security and International Affairs Division, General Accounting Office.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
hearings on the nominations of William Clyburn, Jr., of South Carolina, 
to be a Member of the Surface Transportation Board, Department of 
Transportation, and Duncan T. Moore, of New York, and Arthur 
Bienenstock, of California, each to be an Associate Director of the 
Office of Science and Technology Policy, after the nominees testified 
and answered questions in their own behalf. Mr. Clyburn was introduced 
by Senator Robb and Representatives Clyburn and Eddie Bernice Johnson, 
Mr. Moore was introduced by Representative Slaughter, and Messrs. Moore 
and Bienenstock were introduced by John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the 
President for Science and Technology, and Director, Office of Science 
and Technology Policy.
PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Forests and 
Public Land Management concluded hearings on S. 1253, to provide 
Federal land management agencies the authority and capability to manage 
Federal lands effectively in accordance with the principles of multiple 
use and sustained yield, after receiving testimony from Marvin D. 
Brown, National Association of State Foresters, Jefferson City, 
Missouri; Donald W. Floyd, State University of New York, Syracuse, on 
behalf of the Society of American Foresters; Deborah Gangloff, American 
Forests, James R. Woehr, Wildlife Management Institute, and William H. 
Meadows, on behalf of the Wilderness Society and the Earthjustice Legal 
Defense Fund, all of Washington, D.C.; Daniel R. Dessecker, Ruffed 
Grouse Society, Rice Lake, Wisconsin; Karen Werbelow, Foundation for 
North American Wild Sheep, Cody, Wyoming; James A. Mosher, Izaak Walton 
League of America, Gaithersburg, Maryland; Tom Franklin, Wildlife 
Society, Bethesda, Maryland; Rick Brown, National Wildlife Federation, 
Portland, Oregon; Keith Argow, National Woodland Owners Association, 
and Jeff M. Sirmon, both of Vienna, Virginia; George M. Leonard, 
Fairfax, Virginia, and Mark A. Reimers, Clifton, Virginia.
FEDERAL HYDROELECTRIC LICENSING
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Water and 
Power concluded oversight hearings to review the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission's hydroelectric relicensing procedures and 
related environmental regulations, and recommendations to reform the 
process, after receiving testimony from James J. Hoecker, Chairman, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; John D. Leshy, Solicitor, 
Department of the Interior; Eleanor Towns, Director of Lands, Forest 
Service, Department of Agriculture; Terry Garcia, Acting Assistant 
Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, and Acting Deputy Administrator, 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Carol Jolly, Olympia, 
Washington, on behalf of the Office of the Governor of Washington and 
the Western Governors' Association; John B. Kassel, Vermont Agency of 
Natural Resources, Waterbury; Julie A. Keil, Portland General Electric 
Company and the National Hydropower Association, Portland, Oregon, on 
behalf of the Industry Coalition for Hydropower, Edison Electric 
Institute, and American Public Power Association; Jerry L.

[[Page D1178]]

Sabattis, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, Syracuse, New York; Steve 
Klein, Tacoma Public Utilities, Tacoma, Washington; Laurel Heacock, 
Idaho Power Company, Boise; Margaret Bowman, American Rivers, 
Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Hydropower Reform Coalition; and Liz 
Hamilton, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Oregon City, 
Oregon.
ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee concluded hearings 
to examine the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement and 
compliance assurance program and EPA's enforcement relationship with 
the States regarding State audit laws, and related measures, including 
S. 1332, to recognize and protect State efforts to improve 
environmental mitigation and compliance through the promotion of 
voluntary environmental audits, including limited protection from 
discovery and limited protection from penalties, and provisions of S. 
866, to provide that certain voluntary disclosures of violations of 
Federal law made as a result of a voluntary environmental audit shall 
not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence during judicial 
or administrative proceedings, after receiving testimony from Senators 
Enzi and Hutchison; Steven A. Herman, Assistant Administrator, Office 
of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Environmental Protection 
Agency; Barry R. McBee, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, 
Austin; Patricia S. Bangert, Colorado Office of the Attorney General, 
Denver; Paul G. Wallach, Hale and Dorr, Washington, D.C., on behalf of 
the National Association of Manufacturers and the Corporate 
Environmental Enforcement Counsel; and Mark Woodall, Sierra Club, 
Woodland, Georgia, on behalf of the U.S. Public Interest Research 
Group.
NATO/RUSSIA RELATIONSHIP
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings to examine 
the impact of NATO's admission of Poland, the Czech Republic and 
Hungary on the democratic evolution of Russia, after receiving 
testimony from Thomas R. Pickering, Under Secretary of State for 
Political Affairs; Henry A. Kissinger, Kissinger and Associates, New 
York, New York, former Secretary of State; Jack F. Matlock, Jr., 
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey; and Lt. Gen. 
William E. Odom, USA (Ret.), Hudson Institute, and Dimitri K. Simes, 
Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, both of Washington, D.C.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nominations of Anita M. Josey and John M. Campbell, each to be an 
Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 
after the nominees testified and answered questions in their own 
behalf.
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 Bruce 
Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior; and Paul F. Eckstein, Brown & Bain, 
Phoenix, Arizona.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight 
and the Courts concluded hearings to examine how awards from certain 
class action lawsuits are distributed to victims and to the lawyers who 
represent them, focusing on how some lawyers may be using the class 
action lawsuit structure as a way to win great sums of money in 
attorneys' fees, and how this action can impact on the victim's 
compensation, after receiving testimony from Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, 
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Baltimore, Maryland, on behalf 
of the Judicial Conference of the United States; John C. Coffee, Jr., 
Columbia University Law School, New York, New York; Brian Wolfman, 
Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C.; Lewis H. Goldfarm, 
Chrysler Corporation, Auburn Hills, Michigan; Martha Preston, Baraboo, 
Wisconsin; and John H. Church, Jr., Greer, South Carolina.
HIV/AIDS DEVELOPMENTS
Committee on Labor and Human Resources: Committee concluded hearings to 
examine the scope of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and recent developments in 
AIDS research, and S. 353 and provisions of H.R. 1023, measures to 
provide for compassionate payments with regard to individuals with 
blood-clotting disorders, such as hemophilia, who contracted human 
immunodeficiency virus due to contaminated blood products, after 
receiving testimony from Senator DeWine; Representatives Goss and 
Coburn; Anthony S. Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and 
Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, and Claude Earl 
Fox, Acting Administrator, Health Resources and Services 
Administration, both of the Department of Health and Human Services; 
Michael A. Stoto, Senior Staff Officer, Division of Health Promotion 
and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of 
Sciences; Victoria Sharp, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, New York, New 
York, on behalf of the AIDS Action Council; John Williams, Dayton, 
Ohio, on behalf of the National Hemophilia Foundation; James R. Green, 
Levin, Middlebrooks, Thomas, Mitchell, Green, Echsner,

[[Page D1179]]

Proctor & Papantonio, Pensacola, Florida; and Donna McCullough, St. 
Johnsbury Center, Vermont.
SENATE STRATEGIC PLANNING
Committee on Rules and Administration: Committee held hearings to 
examine a process for establishing goals and objectives for the 
administrative functions of the Senate, receiving testimony from Joyce 
C. Doria and John D. Mayer, both of Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc., McLean, 
Virginia.
  Also, committee met to consider pending administrative business, and 
recessed subject to call.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Veterans Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nominations of Richard J. Griffin, of Illinois, to be Inspector 
General, and Joseph Thompson, of New York, to be Under Secretary for 
Benefits, both of the Department of Veterans Affairs, William P. Greene 
Jr., of West Virginia, to be an Associate Judge of the United States 
Court of Veteran Appeals, and Espiridion A. Borrego, of Texas, to be 
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training, 
after the nominees testified and answered questions in their own 
behalf.
NOMINATION
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nomination of Kevin Gover, of New Mexico, to be Assistant Secretary of 
the Interior for Indian Affairs, after the nominee, who was introduced 
by Senators Domenici and Bingaman, testified and answered questions in 
his own behalf.