[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 167 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D1452-D1453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
CLIMATE DISCLOSURE
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Subcommittee on 
Securities, Insurance and Investment concluded a hearing to examine 
climate disclosure, focusing on measuring financial risks and 
opportunities, including how economics can inform national and global 
responses to the risks and opportunities of climate change, and how 
those risks might be connected with the health of financial markets, 
after receiving testimony from Gary W. Yohe, Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Connecticut; Jeffrey A. Smith, Cravath, Swaine and Moore 
LLP, New York, New York; Mindy S. Lubber, Ceres, on behalf of the 
Investor Network on Climate Risk, Boston, Massachusetts; and Russell 
Read, California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, 
California.
BIPARTISAN TASK FORCE FOR RESPONSIBLE FISCAL ACTION ACT OF 2007
Committee on the Budget: Committee concluded a hearing to examine S. 
2063, to establish a Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal 
Action, to assure the economic security of the United States, and to 
expand future prosperity and growth for all Americans, after receiving 
testimony from Representative Hoyer; David M. Walker, Comptroller 
General of the United States, Government Accountability Office; former 
Representative Leon E. Panetta, Panetta Institute for Public Policy, 
Seaside, California; and William D. Novelli, AARP, and Robert L. Bixby, 
Concord Coalition, both of Washington, DC.
YUCCA MOUNTAIN REPOSITORY
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain 
Repository, after receiving testimony from Senators Reid, Ensign, and 
DeMint; Edward F. Sproat III, Director of the Office of Civilian 
Radioactive Waste Management, Department of Energy; Robert J. Meyers, 
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and 
Radiation, Environmental Protection Agency; Michael Weber, Director, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission; Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada Attorney General, 
Carson City; and James Y. Kerr II, North Carolina Utilities 
Commissioner, on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory 
Utility Commissioners, and Kenneth A. Cook, Environmental Working 
Group, both of Washington, DC.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the following:
  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, with Annexes, done 
at Montego Bay, December 10, 1982 (the ``Convention''), and the 
Agreement Relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United 
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, with 
Annex, adopted at New York, July 28, 1994 (the ``Agreement''), and 
signed by the United States, subject to ratification, on July 29, 1994 
(Treaty Doc. 103-39);
  Convention Between the Government of the United States of America and 
the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium for the Avoidance of Double 
Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on 
Income and accompanying Protocol, signed on November 27, 2006, at 
Brussels (the ``proposed Treaty'') (Treaty Doc. 110-03);
  Protocol Amending the Convention Between the Government of the United 
States of America and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark for the 
Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with 
Respect to Taxes on Income signed at Copenhagen May 2, 2006 (the 
``Protocol'') (Treaty Doc. 109-19);
  Protocol Amending the Convention Between the Government of the United 
States of America and the Government of the Republic of Finland for the 
Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with 
Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital, signed at Helsinki May 31, 
2006 (the ``Protocol'') (Treaty Doc. 109-18);
  Protocol Amending the Convention Between the United States of America 
and the Federal Republic of Germany for the Avoidance of Double 
Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on 
Income and Capital and to Certain Other Taxes, Signed on August 29, 
1989, signed at Berlin June 1, 2006 (the ``Protocol''), along with a 
related Joint Declaration (Treaty Doc. 109-20); and
  The nominations of Patrick Francis Kennedy, of Illinois, to be an 
Under Secretary of State (Management), Sean R. Mulvaney, of Illinois, 
to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for 
International Development, and Daniel D. Heath, of New Hampshire, to be 
United States Alternate Executive Director of the International 
Monetary Fund.
MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN THE GULF COAST
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Ad Hoc 
Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery

[[Page D1453]]

concluded a hearing to examine post-catastrophe crisis, focusing on 
addressing the dramatic need and scant availability of mental health 
care in the Gulf Coast area, after receiving testimony from A. Kathryn 
Power, Director, Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human 
Services; Jan M. Kasofsky, Capital Area Human Services District 
(CAHSD), Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Ronald C. Kessler, Harvard Medical 
School Department of Health Care Policy, Boston, Massachusetts, on 
behalf of the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group (CAG) study; 
and Anthony H. Speier, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, 
Kevin U. Stephens, News Orleans Health Department, and Howard J. 
Osofsky, and Mark H. Townsend, both of Louisiana State University 
Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry, all of New Orleans, 
Louisiana.
FISA AMENDMENTS
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments, focusing on 
ways to protect Americans' security and privacy while preserving the 
rule of law and government accountability, including S. 2248, to amend 
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to modernize and 
streamline the provisions of that Act, and H.R. 3773, to amend the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure 
for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, after 
receiving testimony from Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney 
General, National Security Division, Department of Justice; and Edward 
J. Black, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Patrick F. 
Philbin, former Associate Deputy Attorney General, Kirkland and Ellis, 
and Morton H. Halperin, Open Society Institute, all of Washington, DC.
UNIFORMED SERVICES EMPLOYMENT AND REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT
Committee on Veterans' Affairs: Committee concluded an oversight 
hearing to examine the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment 
Rights Act (USERRA), focusing on servicemembers, their families, and 
our national security, after receiving testimony from George H. 
Stalcup, Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office; 
Charles S. Ciccolella, Assistant Secretary for Veterans Employment and 
Training, and Patrick Boulay, Chief, USERRA Unit, both of the 
Department of Labor; James Byrne, Deputy Special Counsel, Office of 
Special Counsel; and Mathew B. Tully, Tully, Rinckey and Associates, 
PLLC, Albany, New York.