[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 23, 1999)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D325-D327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS--LABOR
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates 
for fiscal year 2000 for the Department of Labor, after receiving 
testimony from Alexis M. Herman, Secretary of Labor.
APPROPRIATIONS--ARMY/AIR FORCE MILITARY CONSTRUCTION
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Military Construction 
concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2000 
for Army and Air Force military construction programs, after receiving 
testimony from Mahlon Apgar, IV, Assistant Secretary of the Army for 
Installations and Environment; and Ruby B. Demesme, Assistant Secretary 
of the Air Force for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and 
Environment.
APPROPRIATIONS--NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION/OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND 
TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent 
Agencies concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal 
year 2000, after receiving testimony in behalf of funds for their 
respective activities from Rita Colwell, Director, and Eamon M. Kelly, 
Chairman, National Science Board, both of the National Science 
Foundation; and Neal Lane, Director, Office of Science and Technology 
Policy.
APPROPRIATIONS--FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Transportation concluded 
hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2000 for the 
Federal Aviation Administration, after receiving testimony from Jane F. 
Garvey, Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of 
Transportation.
PROLIFERATION THREATS
Committee on Armed Services: Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and 
Capabilities concluded hearings on the proliferation threat and the 
programs and policies of the Department of Defense and Department of 
Energy to counter this threat, after receiving testimony from Senator 
Lugar; Rose E. Gottemoeller, Director, Office of Nonproliferation and 
National Security, Department of Energy; Edward L. Warner, III, 
Assistant Secretary for Strategy and Threat Reduction, Jay Davis, 
Director, Defense Threat Reduction

[[Page D326]]

Agency, and Robert Joseph, Director, Counterproliferation Center, 
National Defense University (Fort McNair), all of the Department of 
Defense; Kenneth Alibek, Battelle Memorial Institute, Arlington, 
Virginia; David A. Kay, Center for Counterterrorism, Science 
Applications International Corporation, McLean, Virginia; and Siegfried 
S. Hecker, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, Texas.
HUD MANAGEMENT
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Subcommittee on 
Housing and Transportation concluded oversight hearings on management 
challenges affecting the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 
focusing on HUD's continued reclassification as a ``high-risk'' agency 
by the General Accounting Office, after receiving testimony from Judy 
A. England-Joseph, Director, Housing and Community Development Issues, 
Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division, General 
Accounting Office; and Susan M. Gaffney, Inspector General, and Saul N. 
Ramirez, Jr., Deputy Secretary, both of the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development.
STEEL IMPORT IMPACT
Committee on Finance: Committee held hearings to examine the impact of 
the steel import surge on the United States market and industry, the 
Administration's response, and related measures, including H.R. 975, to 
provide for a reduction in the volume of steel imports, and to 
establish a steel import notification and monitoring program, H.R. 
1120, to modify the standards for responding to import surges under 
section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, to establish mechanisms for 
import monitoring and the prevention of circumvention of United States 
trade laws, and to strengthen the enforcement of United States trade 
remedy laws, S. 61, to eliminate disincentives to fair trade 
conditions, S. 261, to repeal the requirement that the cause of serious 
injury (or threat) be substantial to the domestic industry producing an 
article like or directly competitive with an article that is being 
imported into the United States in such increased quantities with 
respect to the President taking action to facilitate efforts by such 
industry to make a positive adjustment to the import competition, S. 
395, to ensure that the volume of steel imports does not exceed the 
average monthly volume of such imports during the 36-month period 
preceding July 1997, and S. 528, to provide for a private right of 
action in the case of injury from the importation of certain dumped and 
subsidized merchandise, receiving testimony from Senators DeWine and 
Specter; Representatives Houghton and Levin; Charlene Barshefsky, 
United States Trade Representative; William M. Daley, Secretary of 
Commerce; Curtis H. Barnette, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania; George Becker, United Steelworkers of America, 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Thomas G. Belot, Vollrath Company, Sheboygan, 
Wisconsin, on behalf of the North American Association of Food 
Equipment Manufacturers; Joseph A. Cannon, Geneva Steel Corporation, 
Vineyard, Utah; David L. Daniel, Quality Tubing, Inc., Houston, Texas; 
and Jack B. Porter, Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Illinois, on behalf of 
the Emergency Committee for American Trade.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
SUDAN HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Committee on Foreign Affairs: Subcommittee on African Affairs held 
hearings on Sudan's humanitarian crisis and the United States response, 
focusing on road repair, food distribution and self-reliance, health 
care, expanding the cease-fire, and political recommendations, 
receiving testimony from J. Brian Atwood, Administrator, Agency for 
International Development; and Roger Winter, U.S. Committee for 
Refugees, Washington, D.C.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
U.S.-CHINA POLICY
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific 
Affairs held hearings to reexamine United States and China policy 
issues, receiving testimony from Stanley O. Roth, Assistant Secretary 
of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the following business items:
  S. 579, to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to target 
assistance to support the economic and political independence of the 
countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia;
  An original bill (S. 688) to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 
to reauthorize the Overseas Private Investment Corporation;
  S. Res. 26, relating to Taiwan's Participation in the World Health 
Organization, with amendments;
  S. Res. 54, condemning the escalating violence, the gross violation 
of human rights and attacks against civilians, and the attempt to 
overthrow a democratically elected government in Sierra Leone;
  S. Res. 73, congratulating the Government and the people of the 
Republic of El Salvador on successfully completing free and democratic 
elections on March 7, 1999;
  S. Con. Res. 17, concerning the 20th Anniversary of the Taiwan 
Relations Act, with amendments;
  H.R. 432, to designate the North/South Center as the Dante B. Fascell 
North-South Center;

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  H.R. 669, to amend the Peace Corps Act to authorize appropriations 
for fiscal years 2000 through 2003 to carry out that Act;
  S. Res. 68, expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the 
treatment of women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan;
  The Convention on Nuclear Safety done at Vienna on September 20, 1994 
(Treaty Doc. 104-6), with six conditions and two understandings;
  Protocols to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on 
the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be 
Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects: the amended 
Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-
Traps and Other Devices (Protocol II or the Amended Mines Protocol); 
the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary 
Weapons (Protocol III or the Incendiary Weapons Protocol); and the 
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV) (Treaty Doc. 105-1) 
with one reservation, nine understandings and thirteen conditions; and
  The nominations of Robert A. Seiple, of Washington, to be Ambassador 
at Large for International Religious Freedom; William Lacy Swing, of 
North Carolina, to be Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo; Diane Edith Watson, of California, to be Ambassador to the 
Federal States of Micronesia; Kent M. Wiedemann, of California, to be 
Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia; Mary A. Ryan for the personal 
rank of Career Ambassador in recognition of especially distinguished 
service over a sustained period; Richard L. Baltimore, III, for 
promotion to the Class of Minister-Counselor, Senior Foreign Service of 
the Department of State; and a foreign service officer promotion list 
received in the Senate on March 2, 1999.
INTERNET SECURITIES FRAUD
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations continued hearings to examine federal and State 
enforcement efforts to combat securities fraud on the Internet, 
focusing on penny stock fraud, and the adequacy of federal and State 
consumer education programs, receiving testimony from Richard H. 
Walker, Director, Division of Enforcement, Securities and Exchange 
Commission; Peter C. Hildreth, Concord, New Hampshire, on behalf of the 
North American Securities Administrators Association, Inc.; and G. 
Philip Rutledge, Pennsylvania Securities Commission, Harrisburg.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
INTERNET GAMBLING
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and 
Government Information concluded hearings on issues relating to 
Internet gambling, including youth gamblers, addiction, bankruptcy, 
unfair payout, crime, the Wire Act, and the proposed Internet Gambling 
Prohibition Act, after receiving testimony from Wisconsin Attorney 
General James E. Doyle, Madison; Ohio Attorney General Betty 
Montgomery, Columbus; James R. Hurley, New Jersey Casino Control 
Commission, Atlantic City; Jeffrey Pash, National Football League, New 
York, New York; Bill Saum, National Collegiate Athletic Association, 
Overland Park, Kansas; and Marianne McGettigan, Major League Baseball 
Players Association, Portland, Maine.
AUTHORIZATION--ELDER ABUSE PREVENTION
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Subcommittee on 
Aging concluded hearings on proposed legislation authorizing funds for 
programs of the Older Americans Act, focusing on elder abuse prevention 
provisions, the Preventing Elder Financial Exploitation project, 
Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, 
after receiving testimony from Senator Wyden; Stephen J. Schneider, 
Oregon Department of Human Resources, Salem; Paul D. Hodge, National 
Healthcare Law Enforcement Alliance, Providence, Rhode Island; Lisa 
Heermans, Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, Joint Office of Citizen 
Complaints, Dayton, Ohio; Bob Fuecker, Child Abuse Unit, Anne Arundel 
County Police Department, Crownsville, Maryland; and Barbara Sue Faries 
Sipos, Loveland, Colorado.
FAMILY CAREGIVERS
Special Committee on Aging: Committee concluded hearings to examine the 
National Family Caregiver Support Program, a proposal to bolster 
support for family caregivers who provide long-term care for relatives 
with chronic illnesses or disabilities, after receiving testimony from 
Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Ohio State 
Representative Barbara H. Boyd, Columbus; Pennsylvania Secretary of 
Aging, Richard Browdie, Harrisburg; Donna K. Harvey, Hawkeye Valley 
Area Agency on Aging, Waterloo, Iowa; and Stuart Awbrey, Westfield, New 
Jersey.