[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D353-D356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS: FCC/SEC
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, 
and Judiciary concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for 
fiscal year 2000, after receiving testimony in behalf of funds for 
their respective activities from William E. Kennard, Chairman, Federal 
Communications Commission; and Arthur Levitt, Chairman, Securities & 
Exchange Commission.
APPROPRIATIONS: COAST GUARD
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Transportation and Related 
Agencies concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal 
year 2000 for the United States Coast Guard, after receiving testimony 
from Adm. James M. Loy, Commandant, United States Coast Guard, 
Department of Transportation.
APPROPRIATIONS: TREASURY
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Treasury and General 
Government concluded hearings on proposed budget estimates for fiscal 
year 2000 for the Department of the Treasury, after receiving testimony 
from Robert E. Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury.
TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST U.S. CITIZENS
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Foreign Operations 
concluded hearings to examine certain incidents of terrorist attacks 
against U.S. citizens in Israel, and U.S. efforts to press for the 
indictment and extradition of terrorists who have taken American lives, 
after receiving testimony from Mark Richard, Deputy Assistant Attorney 
General of the Criminal Division, Department of Justice; Martin S. 
Indyk, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; Jean-
Claude Niddam, Head of the Legal Assistance between Israel and 
Palestine Authority, Israeli Ministry of Justice; Hasan Abdel Rahman, 
Chief Representative of the P.L.O. and the P.N.A. to the United States; 
Nathan Lewin, Miller, Cassidy Larroca, & Lewin, Washington, D.C.; 
Stephen Flatow, West Orange, New Jersey; Vicki Eisenfeld, West 
Hartford, Connecticut; and Diana Campuzano, New York, New York.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
nomination of Rose Eilene Gottemoeller, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Energy (Non-Proliferation and National Security), and 671 
military nominations in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
  Also, Committee approved its rules of procedure for the 106th 
Congress.
CHINESE ESPIONAGE AT DOE LABORATORIES
Committee on Armed Services: Committee resumed closed hearings to 
examine alleged Chinese espionage at Department of Energy laboratories, 
receiving testimony from Edward J. Curran, Director, Office of 
Counterintelligence, and Notra Trulock, III, Acting Deputy Director, 
Office of Intelligence, both of the Department of Energy; Neil J. 
Gallagher, Assistant

[[Page D354]]

Director, National Security Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 
Department of Justice; and Elizabeth A. Moler, former Deputy Secretary 
of Energy.
  Committee recessed subject to the call.
BANKRUPTCY REFORM
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded 
hearings on proposed legislation on bankruptcy reform, focusing on 
financial services, the Bankruptcy Code, Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 
minimum payment disclosure, credit extensions to college students, 
debit cards, mortgage and home equity loans, and convenience users, 
after receiving testimony from Senators Torricelli and Durbin; 
Representatives Gekas and Boucher; Edward M. Gramlich, Member, Board of 
Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Douglas H. Jones, Senior 
Deputy General Counsel, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Mark 
McClellan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for 
Microeconomics Analysis, Office of Economic Policy; Terry McCormick, 
Plains Bell Federal Credit Union, Amarillo, Texas, on behalf of the 
Credit Union National Association; Brian L. McDonnell, Navy Federal 
Credit Union, on behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit 
Unions, Wright H. Andrews, Jr., Butera and Andrews, on behalf of the 
National Home Equity Mortgage Association, and David Warren, Morgan 
Stanley Dean Witter and Company, Inc., on behalf of the Bond Market 
Association, all of Washington, D.C.; Ronald A. Prill, Retailers 
National Bank, Dayton Hudson Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Beth 
L. Climo, Financial Industry Affairs, New York, New York, on behalf of 
the American Bankers Association; and Gary Klein, National Consumer Law 
Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
FHA SINGLE FAMILY INSURANCE FUND
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Subcommittee on 
Housing and Transportation concluded oversight hearings on challenges 
facing the Federal Housing Administration Mutual Mortgage Insurance 
Fund, which backs the single family insurance fund, after receiving 
testimony from William C. Apgar, Assistant Secretary for Housing-
Federal Housing Commissioner, Department of Housing and Urban 
Development; Stanley J. Czerwinski, Associate Director, Housing and 
Community Development Issues, Resources, Community, and Economic 
Development Division, General Accounting Office; and Timothy F. Kenny, 
KPMG, Washington, D.C.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL MODERNIZATION
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Aviation concluded hearings on proposed legislation to modernize air 
traffic control programs, focusing on the National Airspace System, 
infrastructure, safety features, increasing capacity and efficiency, 
equipment age and maintenance, Free Flight, Data Link, and year 2000 
computer efforts, after receiving testimony from Jane F. Garvey, 
Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration, and Kenneth M. Mead, 
Inspector General, both of the Department of Transportation; Robert W. 
Baker, American Airlines, Dallas, Texas; and John E. O'Brien, Air Line 
Pilots Association, International, Herndon, Virginia.
GRADE CROSSING SAFETY
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine concluded hearings on issues 
relating to highway-rail grade crossing safety, including the 
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986, Operation Lifesaver, 
warning sign improvement, emergency telephone systems, passive 
crossings, driving behavior, and enforcement, after receiving testimony 
from James E. Hall, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board; 
Jolene M. Molitoris, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration, 
and Kenneth R. Wykle, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration, 
both of the Department of Transportation; Billy Parker, Jacksonville, 
Florida, on behalf of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and 
Gerri L. Hall, Alexandria, Virginia, both of Operation Lifesaver, 
Incorporated; Charles E. Dettmann, Association of American Railroads, 
Washington, D.C., and Paul C. Worley, North Carolina Department of 
Transportation, Raleigh.
INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE REFORM
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Communications concluded hearings on S. 376, to amend the 
Communications Satellite Act of 1962 to promote competition and 
privatization in satellite communications, after receiving testimony 
from Vonya B. McCann, Coordinator for International Communications and 
Information Policy, Department of State; Roderick Kelvin Porter, Acting 
Chief, International Bureau, Federal Communications Commission; Betty 
C. Alewine, COMSAT Corporation, and John Sponyoe, Lockheed Martin 
Global Telecommunications, both of Bethesda, Maryland; James W. 
Cuminale, PanAmSat Corporation, Greenwich, Connecticut; and Conny 
Kullman, INTELSAT, Washington, D.C.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee ordered favorably 
reported the nominations of Robert Wayne Gee, of Texas, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Energy (Fossil Energy), and the nomination of 
Carolyn L. Huntoon, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy 
(Environmental Management).

[[Page D355]]


ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF KYOTO PROTOCOL
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee concluded 
oversight hearings to examine the economic impact of the Kyoto 
Protocol, which imposes legally binding emissions limits for greenhouse 
gasses on the industrialized nations, to the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change, after receiving testimony from Senator 
Hagel; Janet Yellen, Chair, Council of Economic Advisers; Jay Hakes, 
Administrator, Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy; 
Mary H. Novak, WEFA, Inc., Burlington, Massachusetts; and Margo 
Thorning, American Council for Capital Formation, and Cecil E. Roberts, 
United Mine Workers of America, both of Washington, D.C.
U.S.-TAIWAN RELATIONS
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings on issues 
relating to United States-Taiwan relations, including the twentieth 
anniversary of Taiwan Relations Act, Taiwan Strait security, defense 
assistance, the engagement strategy with China, free market economy, 
and protecting U.S. interests, after receiving testimony from Senator 
Murkowski; Franklin D. Kramer, Assistant Secretary of Defense for 
International Security Affairs; Stanley O. Roth, Assistant Secretary of 
State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Harvey J. Feldman, Heritage 
Foundation Asia Studies Center, Arlington, Virginia; and Carl W. Ford, 
Jr., Ford and Associates, and David M. Lampton, Johns Hopkins 
University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, both of 
Washington, D.C.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight of 
Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia held 
oversight hearings to examine multiple program coordination in early 
childhood education, focusing on the Results Act 1993, which requires 
executive agencies, in consultation with the Congress and other 
stakeholders, to prepare strategic five-year plans, receiving testimony 
from Marnie S. Shaul, Associate Director, Education, Workforce, and 
Income Security Issues, Health, Education, and Human Services Division, 
General Accounting Office, who was accompanied by several of her 
associates.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following business items:
  S. 461, to assure that innocent users and businesses gain access to 
solutions to the year 2000 problem-related failures through fostering 
an incentive to settle year 2000 lawsuits that may disrupt significant 
sectors of the American economy, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute; and
  The nominations of William J. Hibbler, to be United States District 
Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Matthew F. Kennelly, to be 
United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, 
Carl Schnee, to be United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, 
and Thomas Lee Strickland, to be United States Attorney for the 
District of Colorado.
JUSTICE BUDGET
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Youth Violence concluded 
hearings on the President's proposed budget request for fiscal year 
2000 for the Office of Justice Programs and funding for state and local 
law enforcement, focusing on Juvenile Justice Accountability Incentive 
Block Grant, the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant, and the Truth in 
Sentencing/Violent Offender Incarceration, after receiving testimony 
from Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice 
Programs, Department of Justice; John H. Wilson, Montgomery Police 
Department, Montgomery, Alabama; Chet W. Vahle, Illinois Juvenile 
Court, Quincy, on behalf of the National Council of Juvenile and Family 
Court Judges; Patricia L. West, Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic 
Relations District Court, Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Harry L. 
Shorstein, Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, Jacksonville, Florida.
BIOTERRORISM
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Subcommittee on 
Public Health concluded hearings on issues relating to bioterrorism, 
including United States public health and medical readiness, biological 
terrorism deterrence, outbreak containment and investigation, national 
pharmaceutical stockpile, and research and development, after receiving 
testimony from Margaret A. Hamburg, Assistant Secretary for Planning 
and Evaluation, Jeffrey P. Koplan, Director, Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, and William E. Clark, Deputy Director, Office 
of Emergency Preparedness, all of the Department of Health and Human 
Services; Donald A. Henderson, Johns Hopkins University School of 
Hygiene and Public Health, Richard L. Alcorta, Maryland Institute for 
Emergency Medical Services Systems, and John G. Bartlett, Johns Hopkins 
University School of Medicine, on behalf of the Infectious Diseases 
Society of America, all of Baltimore, Maryland; Stephanie B.C. Bailey, 
Metropolitan Health Department, Nashville, Tennessee, on behalf of the 
National Association of County and City Health Officials; Jerome M. 
Hauer, Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, New York, New York; and 
Michael T. Osterholm, Infection Control Advisory Network, Inc., Eden 
Prairie,

[[Page D356]]

Minnesota, on behalf of the Council of State and Territorial 
Epidemiologists, and the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
INTELLIGENCE
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee met in closed sessions on 
intelligence matters, receiving testimony from officials of the 
intelligence community.
  Committee recessed subject to call.
        H