[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 152 (Wednesday, November 16, 2005)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1221-D1223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Legislative Branch resumed 
hearings to examine the progress of Capitol Visitor Center 
construction, focusing on the estimate of the cost-to-complete the 
project, efforts to keep the project on schedule, and the status of 
critical activities such as stone installation and the utility tunnel 
construction, receiving testimony from Alan M. Hantman, Architect, and 
Robert C. Hixon, Jr., Capitol Visitor Center Project Manager, both of 
the Office of the Architect of the Capitol; Bernard L. Ungar, Director, 
and Terrell Dorn, Assistant Director, both of Physical Infrastructure 
Issues, Government Accountability Office; and Marvin Shenkler, Gilbane 
Company, Washington, D.C.
  Hearing recessed subject to the call.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported 2,442 
military 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. 467, to extend the applicability of the Terrorism Risk Insurance 
Act of 2002, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  An original bill to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to 
award grants to public transportation agencies to improve security; and
  The nominations of Ben S. Bernanke, of New Jersey, to be a Member and 
to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
MAGNUSON-STEVENS FISHERY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT ACT
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
a hearing to examine the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Reauthorization Act of 2005, after receiving testimony from 
James L. Connaughton, Chairman, Council on Environmental Quality; John 
H. Dunnigan, Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce; Admiral 
James D. Watkins, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Chairman, U.S. Commission on Ocean 
Policy; and George LaPointe, State of Maine Department of Marine 
Resources, Augusta.

[[Page D1222]]


VEHICLE FRAUD
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Consumer Affairs, Product Safety, and Insurance concluded a hearing to 
examine how to protect the consumer from flooded and salvage vehicle 
fraud, focusing on efforts to provide greater protection to the car 
buying public and to ensure that the used vehicle marketplace operates 
more efficiently and fairly, after receiving testimony from William L. 
Brauch, Iowa Attorney General's Office, Des Moines; Karen Chappell, 
Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, on behalf of American 
Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and Donald L. Hall, 
Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, on behalf of the National 
Automobile Dealers Association, both of Richmond; Robert M. Bryant, 
National Insurance Crime Bureau, Fairfax, Virginia; Rosemary Shahan, 
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, Sacramento, California; and 
Alan Fuglestad, Experian Automotive, Schaumberg, Illinois.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee ordered favorably 
reported the following business items:
  S. 310, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey the 
Newlands Project Headquarters and Maintenance Yard Facility to the 
Truckee-Carson Irrigation District in the State of Nevada;
  S. 435, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate a 
segment of the Farmington River and Salmon Brook in the State of 
Connecticut for study for potential addition to the National Wild and 
Scenic Rivers System, with an amendment;
  S. 648, to amend the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act 
of 1991 to extend the authority for drought assistance;
  S. 1025, to amend the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the 
construction of the Cheney division, Wichita Federal reclamation 
project, Kansas, and for other purposes'' to authorize the Equus Beds 
Division of the Wichita Project, with an amendment;
  S. 1096, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate 
portions of the Musconetcong River in the State of New Jersey as a 
component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System;
  S. 1310, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to allow the 
Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation to increase the diameter of a 
natural gas pipeline located in the Delaware Water Gap National 
Recreation Area, with an amendment;
  S. 1552, to amend Public Law 97-435 to extend the authorization for 
the Secretary of the Interior to release certain conditions contained 
in a patent concerning certain land conveyed by the United States to 
Eastern Washington University until December 31, 2009;
  S. 1578, to reauthorize the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basin 
endangered fish recovery implementation programs;
  S. 1760, to authorize early repayment of obligations to the Bureau of 
Reclamation within Rogue River Valley Irrigation District or within 
Medford Irrigation District;
  S. 1860, to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to improve energy 
production and reduce energy demand through improved use of reclaimed 
waters, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute; and
  The nominations of Jeffrey D. Jarrett to be Assistant Secretary for 
Fossil Energy, and Edward F. Sproat III to be Director, Office of 
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, both of the Department of 
Energy.
TRANSPORTATION FUELS
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee concluded an 
oversight hearing to examine transportation fuels of the future, after 
receiving testimony from Red Cavaney, American Petroleum Institute, and 
Richard F. Goodstein, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., both of 
Washington, D.C.; Jeffrey McDougall, JMA Energy Company, Oklahoma City, 
Oklahoma, on behalf of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association; 
Bill Honnef, VeraSun Energy, Brookings, South Dakota; and John B. 
Holmes, Jr., Syntroleum Corporation, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
OIL CONSUMPTION
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine the new currency of foreign policy, focusing on the high costs 
of crude, including the effects of U.S. oil consumption on American 
foreign policy and on economic and security interests, after receiving 
testimony from James R. Schlesinger, Lehman Brothers, Washington, D.C.; 
and R. James Woolsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Virginia.
HURRICANE KATRINA RESPONSE
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Committee 
concluded a hearing to examine how government can learn from the 
private sector's response to Hurricane Katrina, focusing on improving 
disaster readiness and response at all levels of government and within 
communities, after receiving testimony from David M. Ratcliffe, 
Southern Company, and Kevin T. Regan, Starwood Hotels and Resorts 
Worldwide, Inc., both of Atlanta, Georgia; Stanley S. Litow, IBM 
Corporation, Armonk, New York; and Jason F. Jackson, Wal-Mart Stores, 
Inc., Bentonville, Arkansas.

[[Page D1223]]


HABEAS REFORM
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded a hearing to examine S. 
1088, to establish streamlined procedures for collateral review of 
mixed petitions, amendments, and defaulted claims, after receiving 
testimony from Judge Howard D. McKibben, U.S. District Court for the 
District of Nevada, and Chairman of the Judicial Conference Committee 
on Federal-State Jurisdiction; Ronald Eisenberg, Philadelphia District 
Attorney's Office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seth P. Waxman, 
Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Dorr, Washington, D.C., former 
Solicitor General of the United States.
NEW FEDERAL JUDGESHIPS
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight 
and the Courts concluded a hearing to examine issues relative to 
creating new Federal judgeships, focusing on recommendations of the 
Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Resources, after receiving 
testimony from W. Royal Furgeson, Jr., District Judge for the Western 
District of Texas, and Chairman of the Judicial Conference Committee on 
Judicial Resources; William H. Steele, U.S. District Judge for the 
Southern District of Alabama; Robyn J. Spalter, Federal Bar 
Association, Miami, Florida; and Marc Galanter, University of 
Wisconsin, Madison.
        H