[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 18, 2002)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D631-D633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee ordered 
favorably reported an original bill, to improve quality and 
transparency in financial reporting and independent audits and 
accounting services for public companies, to create a Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board, to enhance the standard setting process for 
accounting practices, to strengthen the independence of firms that 
audit public companies, to increase corporate responsibility and the 
usefulness of corporate financial disclosure, to protect the 
objectivity and independence of securities analysts, and to improve 
Securities and Exchange Commission resources and oversight.
SPORTS PERFORMANCE-ENHANCEMENT DRUG USE
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce, and Tourism concluded hearings to 
examine steroid use in professional baseball and anti-doping issues in 
amateur sports, after receiving testimony from Jerry Colangelo, AZPB 
Limited Partnership/Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix; Donald M. Fehr, 
Major League Baseball Players Association, and Robert D. Manfred, Jr., 
Major League Baseball, both of New York, New York; Frank Shorter, 
United States Anti-Doping Agency, Boulder, Colorado; Greg Schwab, 
Tigard High School, Vancouver, Washington; and Bernard Greisemer, 
Springfield, Missouri.
PUBLIC LANDS AND FORESTS
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Public Lands 
and Forests concluded hearings on S. 198, to require the Secretary of 
the Interior to establish a program to provide assistance through 
States to eligible weed management entities to control or eradicate 
harmful, nonnative weeds on public and private land, S. 1846, to 
prohibit oil and gas drilling in Finger Lakes National Forest in the 
State of New York, S. 1879, to resolve the claims of Cook Inlet Region, 
Inc., to lands adjacent to the Russian River in the State of Alaska, S. 
2222, to resolve certain conveyances and provide for alternative land 
selections under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act related to 
Cape Fox Corporation and Sealaska Corporation, S. 2471, to provide for 
the independent investigation of Federal wildland firefighter 
fatalities, and S. 2482, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to 
grant to Deschutes and Crook Counties in the State of Oregon a right-
of-way to

[[Page D632]]

West Butte Road, after receiving testimony from Tom Thompson, Deputy 
Chief, National Forest System, Department of Agriculture; James Tate, 
Jr., Science Advisor, David Allen, Regional Director, Fish and Wildlife 
Service, and Bob Anderson, Deputy Assistant Director, Minerals, Realty, 
and Resource Protection, Bureau of Land Management, all of the 
Department of the Interior; Glen Secrist, Idaho State Department of 
Agriculture, Boise; Richard Shields, Cape Fox Corporation, Ketchikan, 
Alaska; Carl H. Marrs, Cook Inlet Region, Inc., Anchorage, Alaska; 
Scott Klundt, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Washington, D.C.; 
and Buck Lindekugel, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Juneau.
ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee concluded hearings 
on S. 1987, to provide for reform of the Corps of Engineers, S. 646, to 
reform the Army Corps of Engineers, and water resources development 
programs within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, focusing on 
accountability, changes in the review process, and improvements in 
wetlands litigation, after receiving testimony from Senator Feingold; 
R. L. Brownlee, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works; 
Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, Department of Defense; Thomas J. Chase, American Association 
of Port Authorities, Alexandria, Virginia; Montgomery Fischer, National 
Wildlife Federation, Reston, Virginia; Steve Ellis, on behalf of 
Taxpayers for Common Sense, and the Council for Citizens Against 
Government Waste, and Tony MacDonald, Coastal States Organization, 
Inc., both of Washington, D.C.; Lisa Holland, South Carolina Department 
of Natural Resources, Columbia; Christopher J. Brescia, Midwest Area 
River Coalition 2000, St. Louis, Missouri; G. Edward Dickey, Baltimore, 
Maryland; and Jim Robinson, Jr., East Prairie, Missouri.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Finance: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following bills:
  H.R. 7, to provide incentives for charitable contributions by 
individuals and businesses, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency 
of government program delivery to individuals and families in need, and 
to enhance the ability of low-income Americans to gain financial 
security by building assets, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 2498, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require 
adequate disclosure of transactions which have a potential for tax 
avoidance or evasion; and
  S. 2119, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for 
the tax treatment of inverted corporate entities and of transactions 
with such entities.
ELDER ABUSE
Committee on Finance: Committee held hearings to examine the protection 
of seniors from abuse and neglect, and ways to prevent, identify, and 
intervene in situations involving elder mistreatment, receiving 
testimony from Robert B. Blancato, National Committee for the 
Prevention of Elder Abuse, Washington, D.C., former Executive Director, 
White House Conference on Aging; Catherine Hawes, Texas A&M University 
School of Rural Public Health Southwest Rural Health Research Center, 
College Station, Texas; Joanne Otto, National Association of Adult 
Protective Services Administrators, Boulder, Colorado; Carmel Bitondo 
Dyer, Baylor College of Medicine/Harris County Hospital District 
Geriatrics Program, Houston, Texas, on behalf of the Texas Elder Abuse 
and Mistreatment Institute; Randolph W. Thomas, South Carolina 
Department of Public Safety Criminal Justice Academy, Columbia; and 
Richard J. Bonnie, University of Virginia Schools of Law and Medicine, 
Charlottesville, on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences 
Institute of Medicine National Research Council Panel to Review Risk 
and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect.
  Hearings recessed subject to call.
TEXAS RESTORATION ACT
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee concluded oversight hearings to 
examine the implementation of the Texas Restoration Act (P.L. 100-89), 
to provide for the restoration of Federal recognition to the Ysleta del 
Sur Pueblo and the Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas, the 
interplay between the Act and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the 
laws of the State of Texas as they relate to gaming, after receiving 
testimony from Kevin Battise, Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas, 
Livingston; Alex Skibine, University of Utah School of Law, Salt Lake 
City, former House Interior Committee Deputy Counsel for Indian 
Affairs; and Virginia W. Boylan, Dorsey and Whitney, Washington, D.C.
DEATH PENALTY REFORM
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded hearings on S. 2446, to 
ensure that death penalty defendants have a true opportunity to have 
their cases considered by the courts; S. 800, to provide for post 
conviction DNA testing, to establish a competent counsel grant program; 
S. 486, to reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed; and 
S. 233, to place a moratorium on executions by the

[[Page D633]]

Federal Government and urge the States to do the same, while a National 
Commission on the Death Penalty reviews the fairness of the imposition 
of the death penalty; after receiving testimony from Representatives 
Delahunt and LaHood; William G. Otis, George Mason University Law 
School, Falls Church, Virginia, former Special White House Counsel and 
former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of 
Virginia; Paul A. Logli, Winnebago County State's Attorney, Rockford, 
Illinois, on behalf of the National District Attorneys Association; 
Barry Scheck, New York State Forensic Science Review and The Innocence 
Project, and James S. Liebman, Columbia University School of Law, both 
of New York, New York; and Larry Yackle, Boston University School of 
Law, Boston, Massachusetts.