[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D109-D111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS--AGRICULTURE
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural 
Development, and Related Agencies held hearings on proposed budget 
estimates for fiscal year 1999 for the Department of Agriculture, 
receiving testimony in behalf of funds for their respective activities 
from I. Miley Gonzalez, Under Secretary for Research, Education and 
Economics, Eileen Kennedy, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Research, 
Education and Economics, Donald Bay, Administrator, National 
Agriculture Statistics Service, Floyd P. Horn, Administrator, 
Agricultural Research Service, Susan Offutt, Administrator, Economic 
Research Service, Bobby H. Robinson, Administrator, Cooperative State 
Research, Education, and Extension Service, and Dennis Kaplan, Deputy 
Director, Budget, Legislation, and Regulatory Systems, all of the 
Department of Agriculture.
   Subcommittee will meet again on Thursday, February 26.
APPROPRIATIONS--JUSTICE
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, 
and Judiciary, and Related Agencies held hearings on proposed budget 
estimates for fiscal year 1999 for the Department of Justice, receiving 
testimony from Janet Reno, Attorney General, and Stephen R. Colgate, 
Assistant Attorney General for Administration, both of the Department 
of Justice.
  Subcommittee will meet again on Thursday, February 26.
OPERATIONAL READINESS
Committee on Armed Services: Subcommittee on Readiness held hearings to 
examine the status of the operational readiness of the United States 
military forces including the availability of resources and training 
opportunities necessary to meet our national security requirements, 
receiving testimony from Vice Admiral Herbert A. Browne, Jr., II, USN, 
Commander, III Fleet; Maj. Gen. Marvin R. Esmond, USAF, Commander, Air 
Force Air Warfare Center, Nellis Air Force Base; Maj. Gen. Ronald G. 
Richard, USMC, Commanding General, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat 
Center; Brig. Gen. Dean W. Cash, USA, Commanding General, National 
Training Center and Fort Irwin; Col. Thomas Matthews, USA, Commander, 
Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; Capt. Thomas Kilcline, USN, 
Commander, Carrier Air Group 14; Col. Stephen Bozarth, USAF, Commander, 
388th Fighter Wing Operations Group; and Col. Emerson N. Gardner, USMC, 
Commander, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
  Hearings continue tomorrow.
SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM
  Committee on the Budget: Committee's Task Force on Social Security 
concluded hearings to discuss the Administration's plans to safeguard 
Social Security in the context of the Federal budget, after receiving 
testimony from Franklin D. Raines, Director, Office of Management and 
Budget; Lawrence H. Summers, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; and 
Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner, Social Security Administration.
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, receiving testimony from Geoffrey C. Bible, 
Philip Morris Companies, Inc., Steven F. Goldstone, RJR Nabisco, Inc., 
and Laurence A. Tisch, Loews Corporation, all of New York, New York; 
Nicholas G. Brookes, Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation, 
Louisville, Kentucky; and Vincent A. Gierer, Jr., UST Inc., Greenwich, 
Connecticut.
  Hearings continue on Thursday, February 26.

[[Page D110]]


GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on National 
Parks, Historic Preservation, and Recreation concluded oversight 
hearings to examine the National Park Service's proposal to develop a 
visitor center and museum facility complex at the Gettysburg National 
Military Park in Pennsylvania, after receiving testimony from Senators 
Specter and Santorum; Denis P. Galvin, Deputy Director, National Park 
Service, Department of the Interior; Ralph W. Tarr, Andrews & Kurth, 
Washington, D.C., former Solicitor, Department of the Interior; Walter 
L. Powell, Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, and Keith 
G. Dorman, Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, both of 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Richard Moe, National Trust for Historic 
Preservation, Washington, D.C.; and Dennis E. Frye, Association for the 
Preservation of Civil War Sites, New York, New York.
NATO ENLARGEMENT
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee held hearings to examine 
Administration views on the proposed Protocols to the North Atlantic 
Treaty of 1949 on the Accession of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech 
Republic (these protocols were opened for signature at Brussels on 
December 16, 1997, and signed on behalf of the United States and other 
parties to the North Atlantic Treaty) (Treaty Doc. 105-36), receiving 
testimony from Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State; William S. 
Cohen, Secretary of Defense; and Gen. Henry H. Shelton, Chairman, Joint 
Chiefs of Staff.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
REGULATORY IMPROVEMENT ACT
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Committee resumed hearings on S. 
981, to provide for the analysis of major regulatory rules by Federal 
agencies, receiving testimony from Bruce Alberts, President, National 
Academy of Sciences and Chairman, National Research Council; Ohio 
Governor George V. Voinovich, Columbus, and Nebraska Governor Ben 
Nelson, Lincoln, both on behalf of the National Governors' Association; 
Milton Russell, Joint Institute for Energy and Environment/University 
of Tennessee, Knoxville; Nancy Donley, Chicago, Illinois, and Sue 
Doneth, Marshall, Michigan, both on behalf of Safe Tables Our Priority; 
Lester M. Crawford, Georgetown University, Warren Belmar, American Bar 
Association, Franklin E. Mirer, United Auto Workers, Karen Florini, 
Environmental Defense Fund, and Robert E. Litan, Brookings Institution, 
all of Washington, D.C.; and Michael A. Resnick, National School Boards 
Association, Alexandria, Virginia.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on the Constitution, 
Federalism, and Property Rights concluded hearings to examine whether 
term limits or campaign finance reform would provide true political 
reform, after receiving testimony from Missouri State Representative 
Joan Bray, Jefferson City; James A. Buchen, Wisconsin Manufacturers and 
Commerce, Madison; Donald Simon, Common Cause, David Keene, American 
Conservative Union, and Paul Jacob, US Term Limits, all of Washington, 
D.C.; Bradley A. Smith, Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio; 
and Rod Pacheco, Riverside, California.
FOREIGN TERRORISTS IN AMERICA
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and 
Government Information concluded hearings to examine the extent of and 
policies to prevent foreign terrorist operations in America, focusing 
on certain incidences of terrorist attacks in the United States, 
including the bombing incident at the World Trade Center in New York 
City, after receiving testimony from Dale L. Watson, Section Chief for 
International Terrorism Operations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 
and Walter D. Cadman, Counterterrorism Coordinator, Office of Field 
Operations, Immigration and Naturalization Service, both of the 
Department of Justice; Richard A. Rohde, Deputy Assistant Director, 
Office of Investigations, United States Secret Service, Department of 
the Treasury; J. Gilmore Childers, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, New 
York, New York; Henry J. DePippo, Nixon Hargrave Devans & Doyle, 
Rochester, New York; Patrick J. Colgan, Jr., PBL Associates, Wyckoff, 
New Jersey; Benjamin Jacobson, Peregrine Group, Miami, Florida; and 
Steven Emerson, The Investigative Project, and Omar Ashmawy, both of 
Washington, D.C.
GLOBAL TOBACCO SETTLEMENT
Committee on Labor and Human Resources: Committee resumed hearings to 
examine the scope and depth of 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, and S. 1648, to provide for reductions in 
youth smoking, for advancements in tobacco-related research, and the 
development of safer tobacco products, receiving testimony from Charles 
N. Jeffress, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and 
Health; Lewis A. Grossman, American University Washington College of 
Law, Richard M. Cooper, Williams & Connolly, on behalf of R.J. Reynolds

[[Page D111]]

Tobacco Company, and Richard A. Levinson, American Public Health 
Association, all of Washington, D.C.; Jack E. Henningfield, Pinney 
Associates, Bethesda, Maryland, on behalf of the Society of Research on 
Nicotine and Tobacco; Jon D. Hanson, Harvard University Law School, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Kyle D. Logue, University of Michigan Law 
School, Ann Arbor.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
NOMINATION
Committee on Veterans Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nomination of Togo Dennis West Jr., of the District of Columbia, to be 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, after the nominee, who was introduced by 
Senator Faircloth, testified and answered questions in his own behalf.