[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D685-D686]
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 Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry: Committee ordered 
favorably reported the nominations of Thomas C. Dorr, of Iowa, to be a 
Member of the Board of Directors of the Commodity Credit Corporation, 
and to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
nominations of Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., USN, to be Admiral, 
and Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, USA, to be Lieutenant 
General.
BASEL CAPITAL ACCORD
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded 
hearings to examine the New Basel Capital Accord, a proposal issued by 
the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to make final modifications 
for a new capital adequacy framework, focusing on proposed changes to 
the current capital regime and possible effects on the amount of risk-
based capital banks are required to hold, on the risk management 
techniques they employ, and on the domestic and international 
competitive landscapes, after receiving testimony from Roger W. 
Ferguson, Jr., Vice Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System; James E. Gilleran, Director, Office of Thrift Supervision, and 
John D. Hawke, Jr., Comptroller of the Currency, Administrator of 
National Banks, both of the Department of the Treasury; Donald E. 
Powell, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Edward I. 
Altman, New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and D. 
Wilson Ervin, Credit Suisse First Boston, on behalf of the Financial 
Services Roundtable, both of New York, New York; Micah S. Green, Bond 
Market Association, and Karen Shaw Petrou, Federal Financial Analytics, 
Inc., both of Washington, D.C.; Maurice H. Hartigan II, Risk Management 
Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Kevin M. Blakely, Keycorp, 
Sydney, Australia.
BUSINESS MEETINGS
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee ordered 
favorably reported the following bills:
  S. 498, to authorize the President to posthumously award a gold medal 
on behalf of Congress to Joseph A. De Laine in recognition of his 
contributions to the Nation; and
  An original bill to facilitate check truncation by authorizing 
substitute checks, to foster innovation in the check collection system 
without mandating receipt of checks in electronic form, and to improve 
the overall efficiency of the Nation's payments system.
BURMA
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific 
Affairs concluded hearings to examine the development of democracy in 
Burma, focusing on the political situation, independent news and 
information, institution-building programs, and the protection of 
Burmese Refugees in Thailand, and S. 1182, to sanction the ruling 
Burmese military junta, to strengthen Burma's democratic forces and 
support and recognize the National League of Democracy as the 
legitimate representative of the Burmese people, after receiving 
testimony from Senator

[[Page D686]]

McConnell; Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, 
Human Rights and Labor; Kenneth Rogers, Indiana University, 
Bloomington; U. Aung Din, Free Burma Coalition, Brian Joseph, National 
Endowment for Democracy, and Veronika A. Martin, Refugees 
International, all of Washington, D.C.; and Kevin M. Burke, American 
Apparel and Footwear Association, Arlington, Virginia.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings to examine 
the nominations of Robert W. Fitts, of New Hampshire, to be Ambassador 
to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and Greta N. Morris, 
of California, to be Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, after each 
nominee testified and answered questions in their own behalf.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings to examine 
the nominations of John E. Herbst, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to 
Ukraine, Tracey Ann Jacobson, of the District of Columbia, to be 
Ambassador to Turkmenistan, and George A. Krol, of New Jersey, to be 
Ambassador to Belarus, after each nominee testified and answered 
questions in their own behalf.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Governmental Affairs: Committee concluded hearings on the 
nominations of Fern Flanagan Saddler, Judith Nan Macaluso, Joseph 
Michael Francis Ryan III, and Jerry Stewart Byrd, each to be an 
Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 
after the nominees, who were introduced by District of Columbia 
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, testified and answered questions on 
their own behalf.
AUTHORIZATION--WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Subcommittee on 
Employment, Safety and Training concluded hearings on proposed 
legislation authorizing funds for programs of the Workforce Investment 
Act, after receiving testimony from Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director, 
Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues, General Accounting 
Office; James N. Ellenberger, Virginia Employment Commission, Richmond; 
Charles Ware, Wyoming Workforce Development Council, Cheyenne; Curtis 
C. Austin, Workforce Florida, Inc., Tallahassee; Michael H. Kennedy, 
Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council, Lacey, Washington; and 
Michael E. Smeltzer, Manufacturers' Association of South Central 
Pennsylvania, York.
NATIVE AMERICAN SACRED PLACES
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee concluded hearings to examine 
federal efforts to ensure access to and protection of Native American 
sacred sites, including the establishment of a sacred sites protection 
policy, after receiving testimony from William D. Bettenberg, Director, 
Office of Policy Analysis, Department of the Interior; Suzan Shown 
Harjo, Morning Star Institute, Washington, D.C.; Charmaine White Face, 
Defenders of the Black Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota; Joyce Bear, 
Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Gene Preston, Pit River 
Tribal Council, Burney, California; Steve Brady, Sr., Northern Cheyenne 
Crazy Dogs Society, Lame Deer, Montana, on behalf of the Medicine Wheel 
Coalition for Sacred Sites of North America.
NEWS CORPORATION/DIRECTV DEAL
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition 
Policy and Consumer Rights concluded hearings to examine the NewsCorp/
DirecTV deal, focusing on global distribution, and possible effects on 
prices paid by consumers for pay television and choice and variety of 
programming, after receiving testimony from K. Rupert Murdoch, News 
Corporation, and Scott Cleland, Precursor Group, both of New York, New 
York; Eddy W. Hartenstein, DIRECTV, Inc., Los Angeles, California; Gene 
Kimmelman, Consumers Union, Washington, D.C.; and Robert Miron, 
Advance/Newhouse Communications, Syracuse, New York.
BUSINESS MEETING
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the nomination of Frank Libutti, of New York, to be Under Secretary for 
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, Department of 
Homeland Security.