[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 60 (Wednesday, May 13, 1998)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D498-D500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS--DEFENSE
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Defense held hearings on 
proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 1999 for the Department of 
Defense, receiving testimony from William S. Cohen, Secretary of 
Defense.
  Subcommittee will meet again on Wednesday, May 20.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUND
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Subcommittee on 
Financial Institutions and Regulatory Relief concluded hearings on 
proposed legislation authorizing funds for fiscal year 1999 for the 
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund to expand access to 
credit and financial services in low income urban, rural, and Native 
American communities, after receiving testimony from former 
Representative Floyd Flake; John D. Hawke, Jr., Under Secretary for 
Domestic Finance, and Ellen W. Lazar, Director, CDFI Fund, both of the 
Department of the Treasury; Judy A. England-Joseph, Director, Housing 
and Community Development Issues, Resources, Community, and Economic 
Development Division, General Accounting Office; Martin Eakes, Self-
Help, Durham, North Carolina; and Mark Pinsky, National Community 
Capital Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[[Page D499]]


WIRELESS BUREAU
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Communications held oversight hearings on the Federal Communications 
Commission, focusing on activities of the Wireless Telecommunications 
Bureau, receiving testimony from Daniel B. Phythyon, Chief, Wireless 
Telecommunications Bureau, FCC.
  Subcommittee will meet again on Tuesday, May 19.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee ordered favorably 
reported the following measures:
  S. 1403, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior and 
Administration of the General Services Administration to identify and 
convey historic light stations to appropriate Federal and non-Federal 
entities for historic preservation, recreation, park and cultural 
purposes, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  H.R. 1460, to allow for election of the Delegate from Guam by other 
than separate ballot, and to provide a five-year extension to the 
supplemental food assistance program for Enewetak and adjust the 
program to reflect population changes;
  H.R. 1779, to make a minor adjustment in the exterior boundary of the 
Devils Backbone Wilderness in the Mark Twain National Forest, Missouri, 
to exclude a small parcel of land containing improvements;
  S. 1468, to provide for the conveyance of one acre of land from Santa 
Fe National Forest to the Village of Jemez Springs New Mexico, as the 
site of a fire sub-station, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 1510, to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 
Agriculture to convey certain land known as the Old Coyote 
Administrative Site to the county of Rio Arriba, New Mexico, with an 
amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 1683, to transfer administrative jurisdiction over part of the 
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area from the Secretary of the Interior 
to the Secretary of Agriculture for inclusion in the Wenatchee National 
Forest in the State of Washington, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 1807, to transfer administrative jurisdiction over certain parcels 
of public domain land in Lake County, Oregon, to facilitate management 
of the land, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  H.R. 1439, to facilitate the sale of certain land in Tahoe National 
Forest in the State of California to Placer County, California;
  S. 1752, to convey certain administrative sites and use the proceeds 
for the acquisition of office sites and the acquisition, construction, 
or improvement of offices and support buildings for the Coconino 
National Forest, Kaibab National Forest, Prescott National Forest, and 
Tonto National Forest in the State of Arizona, with an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute;
  S.J. Res. 41, to approve the location of a proposed memorial to 
Martin Luther King Jr., in the District of Columbia;
  S. 638, to provide for the expeditious completion of the previously 
mandated Federal acquisition of private mineral and geothermal 
interests within Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in the 
State of Washington, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute; 
and
  S. 887, to establish the National Underground Railroad Network to 
Freedom program within the National Park Service to produce and 
designate educational materials and to enter into cooperative 
agreements to further the interpretation and understanding of the 
Underground Railroad.
TREATIES
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings on the 
Montreal Protocol No. 4 to Amend the Convention for the Unification of 
Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air signed at 
Warsaw on October 12, 1929, as amended by the Protocol done at The 
Hague on September 8, 1955 (Treaty Doc. 95-2 B), the International 
Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants of December 2, 
1961, as Revised at Geneva on November 10, 1972, on October 23, 1978, 
and on March 19, 1991, and signed by the United States on October 25, 
1991 (Treaty Doc. 104-17), the Grains Trade Convention and Food Aid 
Convention Constituting the International Grains Agreement, 1995 signed 
by the United States on June 26, 1995 (Treaty Doc. 105-4), Convention 
on the International Maritime Organization signed at Geneva, March 6, 
1948 (the IMO Convention) (Treaty Doc. 104-36), and Trademark Law 
Treaty done at Geneva on October 27, 1994, with Regulations and signed 
by the United States on October 28, 1994 (Treaty Doc. 105-35), after 
receiving testimony from Alan P. Larson, Assistant Secretary of State 
for Economic and Business Affairs.
INDIA
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South 
Asian Affairs held hearings to examine India's nuclear weapons 
potential, focusing on United States and India relations after India's 
recent series of underground nuclear weapons tests, including the 
President's proposed economic sanctions

[[Page D500]]

against India for conducting these tests, receiving testimony from 
former Representative Stephen Solarz; Karl F. Inderfurth, Assistant 
Secretary for South Asian Affairs, and Robert J. Einhorn, Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, both of the 
Department of State; R. James Woolsey, former Director of the Central 
Intelligence Agency; and Fred C. Ikle, former Director of the Arms 
Control and Disarmament Agency.
  Hearings were recessed subject to call.
RETIREMENT COVERAGE ERROR CORRECTION ACT
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee on International 
Security, Proliferation and Federal Services concluded hearings on S. 
1710, to provide for the correction of certain Federal retirement 
coverage errors (with the exception of errors in effect for a period of 
less than three years of employee service after December 31, 1986) 
concerning: (1) Social Security-only covered employees who were 
erroneously CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System) covered or CSRS 
Offset covered; (2) Social Security-only covered employees not eligible 
to elect FERS (Federal Employees Retirement System) who were 
erroneously FERS covered; (3) CSRS covered, CSRS Offset covered, and 
FERS eligible Social Security-only covered employees who were 
erroneously FERS covered without an election; (4) FERS covered current 
and former employees who were erroneously CSRS covered or CSRS Offset 
covered; and (5) annuitants and survivors in cases where FERS covered 
employees were erroneously CSRS covered or CSRS Offset covered, after 
receiving testimony from William E. Flynn, III, Associate Director for 
Retirement and Insurance, Office of Personnel Management; Roger W. 
Mehle, Executive Director, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board; 
and Dallas L. Salisbury, Employee Benefit Research Institute, and 
Daniel F. Geisler, American Foreign Service Association, both of 
Washington, D.C.
TOBACCO SETTLEMENT
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded hearings to examine the 
constitutionality of proposed legislation to reform and restructure the 
process by which tobacco products are manufactured, marketed, and 
distributed, to prevent the use of tobacco products by minors, and to 
redress the adverse health effects of tobacco use, after receiving 
testimony from David W. Ogden, Counselor to the Attorney General, 
Department of Justice; Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton, Denver; 
David C. Vladeck, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C.; 
and Burt Neuborne, New York University School of Law, New York, New 
York, on behalf of the Association of National Advertisers, Inc.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Labor and Human Resources: Committee ordered favorably 
reported the following business items:
  H.R. 2614, to improve the reading and literacy skills of children and 
families by improving in-service instructional practices for teachers 
who teach reading, to stimulate the development of more high-quality 
family literacy programs, to support extended learning-time 
opportunities for children, and to ensure that children can read well 
and independently not later than third grade, with an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute; and
  The nominations of Douglas S. Eakeley, of New Jersey, to be a Member 
of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, Robert H. 
Beatty, Jr., of West Virginia, to be a Member of the Federal Mine 
Safety and Health Review Commission, Raymond L. Bramucci, of New 
Jersey, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, 
Rita R. Colwell, of Maryland, to be Director of the National Science 
Foundation, Thomas Ehrlich, of California, to be a Member of the Board 
of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, 
Seth D. Harris, of New York, to be Administrator of the Wage and Hour 
Division, Department of Labor, William James Ivey, of Tennessee, to be 
Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dorothy A. Johnson, 
of Michigan, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the 
Corporation for National and Community Service, Cyril Kent McGuire, of 
New Jersey, to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Educational 
Research and Improvement, and Jeanne Hurley Simon, of Illinois, to be a 
Member of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.