[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1030-D1031]
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 Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
nominations of Francis J. Harvey, of California, to be Secretary of the 
Army, and Richard Greco, Jr., of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary 
of the Navy for Financial Management, and 685 nominations in the Army, 
Navy, and Air Force.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee ordered 
favorably reported the following business items:
  S. 1379, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in 
commemoration of veterans who became disabled for life while serving in 
the Armed Forces of the United States, and the nomination of Pamela 
Hughes Patenaude, of New Hampshire, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development for Community Planning and Development, 
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute; and
  The nomination of Pamela Hughes Patenaude, of New Hampshire, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Community 
Planning and Development.
AIRLINE INDUSTRY PENSION PLANS
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
a hearing to examine the effect of Federal bankruptcy and pension 
policy on the financial situation of the airlines, focusing on the 
airline plans' underfunding as an example of possible broader problems 
with the defined benefit pension system, airlines facing severe 
competitive pressures, structural flaws in the pension insurance 
program, and bargaining efforts to reduce pension costs, after 
receiving testimony from Representative Emanuel; David M. Walker, 
Comptroller General of the United States, Government Accountability 
Office; Bradley D. Belt, Executive Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty 
Corporation; Duane E. Woerth, Air Line Pilots Association, 
International, Washington, D.C.; and Robert L. Crandall, Irving, Texas.
BIOSHIELD II
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Committee 
on the Judiciary: On Wednesday, October 6, Committees concluded a joint 
hearing to examine an ever-changing threat relating to BioShield II, 
focusing on incentives for research to develop countermeasures to bio-
terror pathogens, and S. 666, to provide incentives to increase 
research by private sector entities to develop antivirals, antibiotics 
and other drugs, vaccines, microbicides, detection, and diagnostic 
technologies to prevent and treat illnesses associated with a 
biological, chemical, or radiological weapons attack, after receiving 
testimony from Christine Grant, Aventis Pasteur, Bridgewater, New 
Jersey; Alan P. Timmins, AVI BioPharma, Inc., Portland, Oregon; 
Kathleen D. Jaeger, Generic Pharmaceutical Association, Arlington, 
Virginia; Carlos

[[Page D1031]]

Angulo, Zuckerman Spaeder, on behalf of the Coalition for a Competitive 
Pharmaceutical Market, Jeffrey P. Kushan, Sidley Austin Brown and Wood, 
LLP, and John M. Clerici, McKenna Long and Aldridge, LLP, all of 
Washington, D.C.; John G. Bartlett, Johns Hopkins University School of 
Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, on behalf of the Infectious Disease 
Society of America; and Patricia Greenberg, New York State Nurse 
Alliance SEIU 1199, Syracuse.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following business items:
  H.R. 2391, to amend title 35, United States Code, to promote 
cooperative research involving universities, the public sector, and 
private enterprises, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 2302, to improve access to physicians in medically underserved 
areas, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 2668, for the relief of Griselda Lopez Negrete; and
  The nomination of Robert Cramer Balfe III, to be United States 
Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, Department of Justice.