[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2006)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D532-D535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
BIODEFENSE AND PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Homeland Security 
concluded a hearing to examine biodefense and pandemic influenza 
preparedness issues, after receiving testimony from John M. Clerici, 
McKenna Long, and Aldridge, LLP, and Frank J. Cilluffo, George 
Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute, both of 
Washington, D.C.; Scott R. Lillibridge, University of Texas Health 
Science Center at Houston School of Public Health; and Paul Offit, 
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the status of financial literacy and financial 
education in the United States, focusing on the importance of financial 
literacy, both as a source of better decisionmaking by consumers and as 
a means of improving the functioning of financial markets, including 
initiatives to promote financial education and address opportunities 
and challenges that policymakers and financial educators face as they 
seek to improve financial literacy, after receiving testimony from 
Senator Akaka; Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman, Board of

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Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Christopher Cox, Chairman, 
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; M. Cindy Hounsell, Women's 
Institute for a Secure Retirement, and Stephen Brobeck, Consumer 
Federation of America, both of Washington, D.C.; and Sarah Teslik, 
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., Denver, Colorado.
NOMINATION
Committee on the Budget: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
nomination of Robert J. Portman, of Ohio, to be Director of the Office 
of Management and Budget.
GASOLINE PRICE GOUGING
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
a hearing to examine if the price of gasoline is being artificially 
manipulated by reducing refinery capacity or by any other form of 
market manipulation or price gouging practices, including 
recommendations for Congress's consideration in its ongoing efforts to 
protect consumers in petroleum markets, after receiving testimony from 
Deborah Platt Majoras, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission; Nariman 
Behravesh, Global Insight, Lexington, Massachusetts; and Bob Slaughter, 
National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, and Mark Cooper, 
Consumer Federation of America, both of Washington, D.C.
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the National Research Council report, Managing 
Construction and Infrastructure in the 21st Century Bureau of 
Reclamation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Report, Managing for 
Excellence: An Action Plan for the 21st Century, after receiving 
testimony from William E. Rinne, Acting Commissioner, Bureau of 
Reclamation, Department of the Interior; New Mexico State Senator H. 
Diane Snyder, Albuquerque, on behalf of the American Council of 
Engineering Companies; Lloyd A. Duscha, Reston, Virginia, on behalf of 
the National Research Council; Dan Keppen, Family Farm Alliance, 
Klamath Falls, Oregon; and Thomas F. Donnelly, National Water Resources 
Association, and Scott Yates, Trout Unlimited, both of Arlington, 
Virginia.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee ordered favorably 
reported the following business items:
  S. 2781, to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to enhance 
the security of wastewater treatment works, with an amendment;
  S. 2023, to amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to improve that Act, 
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 2735, to amend the National Dam Safety Program Act to reauthorize 
the national dam safety program, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 2430, to amend the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act 
of 1990 to provide for implementation of recommendations of the United 
States Fish and Wildlife Service contained in the Great Lakes Fishery 
Resources Restoration Study, with an amendment;
  S. 2912, to establish the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, to 
establish the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, with an amendment;
  S. Res. 301, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National 
Audubon Society, with an amendment;
  S. 2832, to reauthorize and improve the program authorized by the 
Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965;
  S. 1509, to amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to add non-human 
primates to the definition of prohibited wildlife species;
  S. 2041, to provide for the conveyance of a United States Fish and 
Wildlife Service administrative site to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada;
  S. 2127, to redesignate the Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge in 
the State of Virginia as the ``Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National 
Wildlife Refuge'';
  S. 2650, to designate the Federal courthouse to be constructed in 
Greenville, South Carolina, as the ``Carroll A. Campbell, Jr. Federal 
Courthouse.'';
  S. 801, to designate the United States courthouse located at 300 
North Hogan Street, Jacksonville, Florida, as the ``John Milton Bryan 
Simpson United States Courthouse''; and The nominations of Molly A. 
O'Neill, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Administrator of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, and and Dale Klein, of Texas, Gregory 
B. Jaczko, of the District of Columbia, and Peter B. Lyons, of 
Virginia, each to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Committee on Finance: Subcommittee on Long-Term Growth and Debt 
Reduction held a hearing to examine the ability of tribal governments 
to implement long-term, self-sustaining economic development, focusing 
on Tribal tax-exempt bond issues, receiving testimony from Raymond C. 
Etcitty, Navajo Nation Office of Legislative Counsel, Window Rock, 
Arizona; Lenor A. Scheffler, Best and Flanagan LLP, Minneapolis, 
Minnesota; Gavin Clarkson, University

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of Michigan School of Information, School of Law, and Native American 
Studies, Ann Arbor; Scott Schickli, Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe 
LLP, Portland, Oregon; and Wayne A. Shammel, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua 
Tribe of Indians, Roseburg, Oregon.
  Hearing recessed subject to the call.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the following business items:
  S. Res. 312, expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the need 
for the United States to address global climate change through the 
negotiation of fair and effective international commitments, with 
amendments;
  S. Res. 359, concerning the Government of Romania's ban on 
intercountry adoptions and the welfare of orphaned or abandoned 
children in Romania;
  S. Res. 456, expressing the sense of the Senate on the discussion by 
the North Atlantic Council of secure, sustainable, and reliable sources 
of energy;
  S. Res. 469, condemning the April 25, 2006, beating and intimidation 
of Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque;
  S. 559, to make the protection of vulnerable populations, especially 
women and children, who are affected by a humanitarian emergency a 
priority of the United States Government, with amendments;
  S. 1950, to promote global energy security through increased 
cooperation between the United States and India in diversifying sources 
of energy, stimulating development of alternative fuels, developing and 
deploying technologies that promote the clean and efficient use of 
coal, and improving energy efficiency, with amendments;
  S. 2125, to promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo;
  S. 2200, to establish a United States-Poland parliamentary youth 
exchange program, with amendments;
  S. 2566, to provide for coordination of proliferation interdiction 
activities and conventional arms disarmament, with an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute;
  S. 2697, to establish the position of the United States Ambassador 
for ASEAN, with amendments;
  The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, with 
a declaration, done at Vienna on September 12, 1997, Convention Adopted 
by a Diplomatic Conference convened by the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA) and opened for signature at Vienna, September 29, 1997, 
during the IAEA General Conference (Treaty Doc. 107-21), with one 
declaration and one condition; and
  The nominations of Rajkumar Chellaraj, of Texas, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of State for Administration, Patricia P. Brister, of 
Louisiana, for the rank of Ambassador during her tenure of service as 
the U.S. Representative on the Commission on the Status of Women of the 
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, Warren W. Tichenor, 
of Texas, to be U.S. Representative to the Office of the United Nations 
and Other International Organizations in Geneva, with the rank of 
Ambassador, Mark C. Minton, of Florida, to be Ambassador to Mongolia, 
Robert F. Godec, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Tunisia, Robert S. Ford, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the People's 
Democratic Republic of Algeria, David M. Robinson, of Connecticut, to 
be Ambassador to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Lisa Bobbie 
Schreiber Hughes, of Pennsylvania, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Suriname, Anne E. Derse, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the Republic 
of Azerbaijan, William B. Taylor, Jr., of Virginia, to be Ambassador to 
Ukraine, Daniel S. Sullivan, of Alaska, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
State for Economic and Business Affairs, Goli Ameri, of Oregon, to be a 
U.S. Representative to the Sixtieth Session of the General Assembly of 
the United Nations, Duane Acklie, of Nebraska, to be an Alternate U.S. 
Representative to the Sixtieth Session of the General Assembly of the 
United Nations, Robert C. O'Brien, of California, to be an Alternate 
U.S. Representative to the Sixtieth Session of the General Assembly of 
the United Nations, Michael D. Kirby, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to 
the Republic of Moldova, John A. Cloud, Jr., of Virginia, to be 
Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania, April H. Foley, of New York, 
to be Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary, Tracey Ann Jacobson, of 
the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Tajikistan, Michael Wood, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador 
to Sweden, Robert Anthony Bradtke, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the 
Republic of Croatia, and certain Foreign Service Officer promotion 
lists.
PATENT REFORM
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Intellectual Property 
concluded a hearing to examine post-grant review procedures and other 
litigation reforms relating to patents, after receiving testimony from 
Mark Chandler, Cisco Systems, San Jose, California; Philip S. Johnson, 
Johnson and Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Nathan P. Myhrvold, 
Intellectual Ventures, Bellevue, Washington; John R. Thomas, Georgetown 
University Law Center, Washington, D.C.; and Andrew Cadel, JP Morgan 
Chase, New York, New York, on behalf of the Financial Services 
Roundtable.

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BUSINESS MEETING
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee met in closed session and 
ordered favorably reported the following business items:
  An original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2007 for 
intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States 
Government, the Intelligence Community Management Account, and the 
Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System; and
  The nomination of General Michael V. Hayden, United States Air Force, 
to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
  Committee recessed subject to the call.