[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D377-D378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS--FOREIGN ASSISTANCE
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Foreign Operations held 
hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 1999 for foreign 
assistance, focusing on international crime prevention programs, 
receiving testimony from Louis Freeh, Director, and Michael Pyszczmuka, 
Legal Attache (Kiev, Ukraine), both of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, Department of Justice; and Gen. Ihor Smeshko, Center for 
Strategic Planning and Analysis, Kiev, Ukraine.
  Subcommittee will meet again on Thursday, April 23.
APPROPRIATIONS--GAO/BIA
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on the Interior and Related 
Agencies held hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 
1999, receiving testimony in behalf of funds for their respective 
activities from Victor S. Rezendes, Director of Energy, Resources and 
Science Issues, Sue Ellen Naiberk, Assistant Director, and Jennifer L. 
Duncan, Evaluator, all of the General Accounting Office; and Kevin 
Gover, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.
  Subcommittee will meet again on Thursday, April 23.
BREAST CANCER PREVENTION
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies held hearings to examine 
the use of the drug Tamoxifen for the prevention and treatment of 
breast cancer, receiving testimony from Harold E. Varmus, Director, and 
Richard D. Klausner, Director, National Cancer Institute, both of the 
National Institutes of Health; Norman Wolmark, Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, and Helene Wilson, North Wales, Pennsylvania, both on 
behalf of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project 
(NSABP); and Cynthia Pearson, National Women's Health Network, 
Washington, D.C.
  Subcommittee recessed subject to call.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported S. 
1873, to state the policy of the United States regarding the deployment 
of a missile defense system capable of defending the territory of the 
United States against limited ballistic missile attack.
MARITIME AND AVIATION LIABILITY
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine concluded hearings on the 
following measures:
  Proposed legislation to revise certain provisions with regard to the 
liability of ship owners for loss of and damage to cargo on the high 
seas as contained in the United States Carriage of Goods by Sea Act of 
1936, after receiving testimony from Chester D. Hooper, Haight Gardner 
Holland & Knight, on behalf of the Maritime Law Association of the

[[Page D378]]

United States, and Walter M. Kramer, American Institute of Marine 
Underwriters, both of New York, New York; William J. Augello, Augello, 
Pezold & Hirschmann, Huntington, New York, on behalf of the National 
Industrial Transportation League; Jon Roethke, Sea-Land Service, Inc., 
Charlotte, North Carolina; and William M. Woodruff, Eastham, Watson, 
Dale and Forney, Houston, Texas, on behalf of the American Waterways 
Operators; and
  S. 943 and H.R. 2005, bills to allow a dependent of a victim of an 
international aviation accident occurring on or after January 1, 1995, 
to sue for pecuniary loss, after receiving testimony from and Paul T. 
Hofmann, Cappiello Hofmann & Katz, New York, New York; Eric Danoff, 
Kaye, Rose & Partners, San Francisco, California; and John Sleavin, 
Portland, Oregon.
AGRICULTURE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
Committee on Finance: Subcommittee on International Trade held hearings 
to examine certain issues in preparation for the next round of 
multilateral agricultural trade negotiations scheduled for May 18-20, 
1999 in Geneva, focusing on barriers to United States farm exports, 
receiving testimony from Senator Brownback; Peter Scher, Special Trade 
Negotiator for Agriculture, Office of the United States Trade 
Representative; August Schumacher, Jr., Under Secretary of Agriculture 
for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; William B. Campbell, 
Central Soya, Inc., Fort Wayne, Indiana, on behalf of the National 
Oilseed Processors Association; Charles S. Johnson, Pioneer Hi-Bred 
International, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa; Dean Kleckner, American Farm 
Bureau Federation, Park Ridge, Illinois; Carl Peterson, Agri-Mark, 
Inc., Delanson, New York, on behalf of the Council of Northeast Farmer 
Cooperatives; and Ann M. Veneman, California Department of Food and 
Agriculture, Sacramento.
  Committee recessed subject to call.
VETERANS HEALTH CARE
Committee on Veterans Affairs: Committee concluded hearings to examine 
the health effects of ionizing radiations on veterans, and related 
measures S. 1385, to expand the list of diseases presumed to be service 
connected with respect to radiation-exposed veterans, and S. 1822, to 
authorize provision of care to veterans treated with nasopharyngeal 
radium irradiation, after receiving testimony from Kenneth W. Kizer, 
Under Secretary for Health, Joseph Thompson, Under Secretary for 
Benefits, John Thompson, Acting General Counsel, all of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs; Joan Ma Pierre, Director for Electronics and 
Systems, Defense Special Weapons Agency, Department of Defense; Capt. 
Richard L. LaFontaine, Medical Service Corps, United States Navy; 
Richard B. Setlow, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; 
Rosalie Bertell, International Institute of Concern for Public Health, 
Toronto, Canada; William J. Brady, former Prime Support Contractor to 
the Department of Energy at the Nevada Test Site, Las Vegas; Otto G. 
Raabe, University of California, Davis, on behalf of the Health Physics 
Society; Tidoro A. Garcia, Las Cruces, New Mexico, on behalf of the 
National Association of Atomic Veterans; James Garrity, Branford, 
Florida, on behalf of the Submarine Survivors Group; and former Mayor 
Albert G. Parrish, Hackensack, Minnesota, on behalf of the Forgotten 
216th.
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS THREAT
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee met in a closed joint 
session with the Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on 
Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information to receive a briefing 
from officials of the intelligence community on chemical and biological 
weapons threats to America.
  Committees will meet again tomorrow.