[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 114 (Thursday, September 14, 2006)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D965-D967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Energy and Water, Related 
Agencies concluded a hearing to examine the Global Nuclear Energy 
Partnership, including proposed advanced reactor technologies for 
recycling nuclear waste, after receiving testimony from Dennis 
Spurgeon, Assistant Secretary of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy; Alan 
Hanson, AREVA NC, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland; Kelly Fletcher, GE Global 
Research, Fairfield, Connecticut; and Matthew Bunn, Harvard University 
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
CATCHING TERRORISTS
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Homeland Security 
concluded a hearing to examine the British system versus the U.S. 
system relating to

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catching terrorists, after receiving testimony from Judge Richard 
Posner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; John Yoo, 
University of California at Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law; and Tom 
Parker, Halo Partnership Consulting, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported an 
original bill (S. 3901) to authorize trial by military commission for 
violations of the law of war.
PREDATORY LENDING PRACTICES
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the Department of Defense's report on predatory 
lending practices directed at members of the armed forces and their 
dependents, after receiving testimony from David S. C. Chu, Under 
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; Admiral Charles S. 
Abbot, USN (Ret.), Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, Arlington, 
Virginia; William O. Brown, Jr., University of North Carolina at 
Greensboro Department of Accounting and Finance, on behalf of the 
Consumer Credit Research Foundation; Lynn Drysdale, Jacksonville Area 
Legal Aid, Jacksonville, Florida; Hilary B. Miller, Alexandria, 
Virginia, on behalf of the Payday Loan Bar Association, and Community 
Financial Services Association; and Christopher L. Peterson, University 
of Florida, Gainesville.
RURAL AIR SERVICE
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Aviation concluded a hearing to examine rural air service, focusing on 
the development and impact of funding programs including Essential Air 
Service, and the status of Small Community Air Service Development 
Program that help small communities retain or attract air service, 
after receiving testimony from Michael W. Reynolds, Acting Assistant 
Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs; 
Gerald L. Dillingham, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues, 
Government Accountability Office; Faye Malarkey, Regional Airline 
Association, Washington, D.C.; John Torgerson, Alaska Department of 
Transportation, Anchorage; and Douglas Kaercher, Hill County 
Commissioner, Havre, Montana, on behalf of the National Association of 
Counties.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the nominations of C. Stephen Allred, of Idaho, to 
be Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, who was 
introduced by Senators Craig and Crapo, and Robert W. Johnson, of 
Nevada, to be Commissioner of Reclamation, who was introduced by 
Senators Reid and Ensign, both of the Department of the Interior, after 
the nominees testified and answered questions in their own behalf.
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Subcommittee on Clean Air, 
Climate Change, and Nuclear Safety concluded an oversight hearing to 
examine Nuclear Regulatory Commission responsibility and capability for 
long- and short-term spent fuel storage programs, focusing on the 
effect on the NRC's resources of current and proposed nuclear waste 
management programs, after receiving testimony from Edward F. Sproat, 
III, Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and R. 
Shane Johnson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, 
both of the Department of Energy; Luis A. Reyes, Executive Director for 
Operations, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Admiral Frank 
L. Bowman, USN (Ret.), Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, D.C.; and 
Victor Gilinsky, Santa Monica, California.
FEDERAL AGENCIES CONFERENCE SPENDING
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee 
on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and 
International Security concluded a hearing to examine Federal agencies 
spending on conference meetings and travel, focusing on how they 
monitor and track conference participation and spending and control 
these activities, after receiving testimony from Lisa Fiely, Chief 
Financial Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development; Nina Rose 
Hatfield, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Policy, 
Management and Budget; Lee J. Lofthus, Acting Assistant Attorney 
General for Administration, Department of Justice; Michell Clark, 
Assistant Secretary of Education for Management; Edward C. Hugler, 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations, Office of the Assistant 
Secretary for Administration, Department of Labor; Clarence C. 
Crawford, Chief Financial Officer, Office of Personnel Management; 
Eugene Schied, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Department of Homeland 
Security; Jeffery K. Nulf, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for 
Administration; Richard Holcomb, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, 
Department of the Treasury; and Charles R. Christopherson, Jr., Chief 
Financial Officer, Department of Agriculture.
SKILLS-BASED POINT SYSTEM
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Committee 
concluded a hearing to examine the value

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of a skills-based point system relating to employment-based permanent 
immigration, after receiving testimony from Charles M. Beach, Queen's 
University John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy, 
Kingston, Ontario, Canada; George J. Borjas, Harvard University Kennedy 
School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Douglas S. Massey, 
Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International 
Affairs, Princeton, New Jersey; and Alan Tonelson, U.S. Business and 
Industry Council Educational Foundation, Washington, D.C.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following business items:
  H.R. 854, to provide for certain lands to be held in trust for the 
Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe;
  S. 3648, to compromise and settle all claims in the case of Pueblo of 
Isleta v. United States, to restore, improve, and develop the valuable 
on-reservation land and natural resources of the Pueblo;
  S. 3687, to waive application of the Indian Self-Determination and 
Education Assistance Act to a specific parcel of real property 
transferred by the United States to 2 Indian tribes in the State of 
Oregon; and
  The nomination of the nomination of Carl Joseph Artman, of Colorado, 
to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.
  Prior to this action, committee concluded a hearing to examine the 
nomination of Carl Joseph Artman (listed above), after the nominee 
testified and answered questions in his own behalf.
FEDERAL PROSECUTORS
Committee on the Judiciary: On Wednesday, September 13, Subcommittee on 
Crime and Drugs concluded a hearing to examine challenges facing 
today's federal prosecutors, including efforts to combat terrorism, 
violent crime, the exploitation of children, cyber-crime, drug 
trafficking, civil rights violations, and corporate and public 
corruption, after receiving testimony from Michael A. Battle, Director, 
Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and Susan W. Brooks, U.S. 
Attorney, Southern District of Indiana, Vice-Chair, Attorney General's 
Advisory Committee, Chair, Office of Management and Budget 
Subcommittee, both of the Department of Justice; and William I. 
Shockley, Lake Ridge, Virginia, on behalf of the National Association 
of Assistant United States Attorneys.
SENIOR SUICIDE
Special Committee on Aging: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
mental illness and suicide prevention, focusing on the quality of 
geriatric psychiatry, and the rate of suicide among senior citizens, 
after receiving testimony from Melvin Kohn, Oregon Department of Human 
Services, Salem; David Carl Steffens, Duke University Medical Center, 
Durham, North Carolina; Christopher C. Colenda, Texas A&M University, 
College Station; Art Walaszek, University of Wisconsin School of 
Medicine and Public Health, Madison; and David Shern, National Mental 
Health Association, Alexandria, Virginia.