[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 52 (Thursday, April 3, 2008)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D368-D371]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS: NASA
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, 
Science, and Related Agencies concluded a hearing to examine proposed 
budget estimates for fiscal year 2009 for the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration (NASA), after receiving testimony from Michael D. 
Griffin, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUNDS
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing 
and Urban Development, and Related Agencies concluded a hearing to 
examine the status of the surface transportation trust funds and their 
impact on federal spending, after receiving testimony from James S. 
Simpson, Administrator,

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Federal Transit Administration, James D. Ray, Acting Administrator, 
Federal Highway Administration, Joseph H. Boardman, Federal Railroad 
Administrator, and David Tornquist, Assistant Inspector General, Rail 
and Maritime Program Audits and Economic Analysis, all of the 
Department of Transportation; John McCaskie, Swank Associated 
Companies, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the 
Transportation Construction Coalition; William M. Millar, American 
Public Transportation Association, and Donna McLean and Alex Kummant, 
both of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), all of 
Washington, D.C.; and Joel Parker, Transportation Communications Union, 
Rockville, Maryland.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Armed Services: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
the nominations of General David D. McKiernan, to be General, and 
Commander, International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan, 
Lieutenant General Raymond T. Odierno, to be General, and Vice Chief of 
Staff, and Lieutenant General Walter L. Sharp, to be General, and 
Commander, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/United States 
Forces Korea, all of the United States Army, after the nominees 
testified and answered questions in their own behalf.
DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION REQUEST
Committee on Armed Services: Subcommittee on Airland concluded a 
hearing to examine the defense authorization request for fiscal year 
2009 on Army modernization, and the future years defense program, after 
receiving testimony from Lieutenant General Stephen M. Speakes, USA, 
Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, United States Army, and Lieutenant General 
N. Ross Thompson III, USA, Military Deputy to the Acting Assistant 
Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, both 
of the Department of Defense.
U.S. CREDIT MARKETS
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine turmoil in United States credit markets, focusing on 
the recent actions of federal financial regulators, after receiving 
testimony from Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman, Board of Governors of the 
Federal Reserve System; former Representative Christopher Cox, 
Chairman, United States Securities and Exchange Commission; Robert K. 
Steel, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance; Timothy F. 
Geithner, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank 
of New York; and Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase, and Alan Schwartz, Bear 
Stearns Companies, Inc., both of New York, New York.
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard concluded a hearing to 
examine international fisheries, focusing on management and 
enforcement, after receiving testimony from John D. Negroponte, Deputy 
Secretary, and David A. Balton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans 
and Fisheries, both of the Department of State; Rear Admiral A.E. 
Brooks, Commander, Coast Guard District Seventeen, Department of 
Homeland Security; James W. Balsiger, National Marine Fisheries 
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of 
Commerce; Jim Cook, Pacific Ocean Producers, Honolulu, Hawaii; David 
Benton, Marine Conservation Alliance, Juneau, Alaska; and Lisa Speer, 
Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, New York.
PRICE OF OIL
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine the current price of crude oil, focusing on the 
influence of non-commercial institutional investors, after receiving 
testimony from Jeffrey Harris, Chief Economist, Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission; Sarah A. Emerson, Energy Security Analysis, Inc., 
Wakefield, Massachusetts; Kevin Book, FBR Capital Markets Corporation, 
Arlington, Virginia; James Burkhard, Cambridge Energy Research 
Associates, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Sean Cota, Cota and Cota, Inc., 
Bellows Falls, Vermont, on behalf of the Petroleum Marketers 
Association of America; and John Eichberger, National Association of 
Convenience Stores, Alexandria, Virginia.
REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at 
United States colleges and universities, after receiving testimony from 
Richard C. Levin, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Jacqueline 
Johnson, University of Minnesota, Morris; and Robert J. Birgeneau, 
University of California, Berkeley.
ESTATE TAX REFORM
Committee on Finance: Committee concluded a hearing to examine creative 
thinking and new perspectives relative to estate tax reform, focusing 
on reviewing ideas to simplify planning, after receiving testimony from 
Dennis I. Belcher, McGuire Woods, LLP, Richmond, Virginia; Shirley L. 
Kovar, Branton and Wilson, APC, San Diego, California; Roby B. Sawyers, 
North Carolina State University College of Management, Raleigh, on 
behalf of the American Institute

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of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA); and Diana Aviv, Independent 
Sector, Washington, D.C.
IRAQ: THE FUTURE
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine possible conditions and developments in Iraq in the year 2012, 
after receiving testimony from Carole A. O'Leary, American University 
Center for Global Peace, and Carlos Pascual, Brookings Institution, 
both of Washington, D.C.; Dawn Brancati, Harvard University Institute 
for Quantitative Social Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts; F. Gregory 
Gause III, University of Vermont, Burlington; and Terrence K. Kelly, 
RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
FEMA TODAY
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Committee 
concluded a hearing to examine the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA), focusing on whether the agency is better prepared for a 
catastrophe in 2008 than it was in 2005, after receiving testimony from 
Richard L. Skinner, Inspector General, and R. David Paulison, 
Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency, both of the 
Department of Homeland Security.
SENIOR EXECUTIVE DIVERSITY ASSURANCE ACT
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee 
on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the 
District of Columbia concluded a joint hearing with the House Committee 
on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal 
Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia to examine 
managing diversity of senior leadership in the Federal workforce and 
Postal Service, including S. 2148 and H.R. 3774, bills to provide for 
greater diversity within, and to improve policy direction and oversight 
of, the Senior Executive Service, after receiving testimony from Nancy 
Kichak, Associate Director and Chief Actuary, Strategic Human Resources 
Policy Division, Office of Personnel Management; Susan LaChance, Vice 
President of Employee Development and Diversity, Steven W. Williams, 
Secretary and Chief Administrative Officer, Postal Regulatory 
Commission, Ronald Stith, Assistant Inspector General for Mission 
Support, Office of Inspector General, and Nicole A. Johnson, Assistant 
Chief Inspector Investigations and Security Support, United States 
Postal Inspection Service, all of the United States Postal Service; 
George H. Stalcup, Director of Strategic Issues, and Katherine 
Siggerud, Director of Physical Infrastructure, both of the Government 
Accountability Office; Bray Barnes, Acting Chief Human Capital Officer, 
and Carmen Walker, Deputy Officer, Office for Civil Rights and Civil 
Liberties, both of the Department of Homeland Security; William 
Bransford, Senior Executives Association, Rhonda Trent, Federally 
Employed Women, Carson Eoyang, Asian American Government Executives 
Network, Jose Osegueda, National Association of Hispanic Federal 
Executives, and Darlene Young, Blacks in Government, all of Washington, 
D.C.; and William Brown, African American Federal Executives 
Association, Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following:
   S. 2136, to address the treatment of primary mortgages in 
bankruptcy, with an amendment;
  S. 2041, to amend the False Claims Act, with an amendment in the 
nature of a substitute;
  S. Res. 468, designating April 2008 as ``National 9-1-1 Education 
Month''; and
  The nominations of Catharina Haynes, of Texas, to be United States 
Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, and Rebecca A. Gregory, to be 
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
the nominations of Mark S. Davis, to be United States District Judge 
for the Eastern District of Virginia, David J. Novak, to be United 
States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, and 
Elisebeth C. Cook, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Attorney General, 
who were all introduced by Senators Warner and Webb, and David Gregory 
Kays, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of 
Missouri, and Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., to be United States District 
Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, who were both introduced by 
Senators Bond and McCaskill, after the nominees testified and answered 
questions in their own behalf.
VETERANS LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATIONS
Committee on Veterans' Affairs: Committee concluded a joint hearing 
with the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs to examine legislative 
presentations from sundry veteran affairs organizations, after 
receiving testimony from John A. Scocos, Wisconsin Department of 
Veterans Affairs, Madison, on behalf of the National Association of 
State Directors of Veterans Affairs; John P. Brown III, AMVETS, 
Youngstown, Ohio; Henry J. Cook III, Military Order of the Purple 
Heart, Annandale, Virginia; Commander Rene A. Campos, USN (Ret.), 
Military Officers Association of America, Washington, D.C.; Rose 
Elizabeth Lee, Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., Birmingham, Alabama; 
Master Chief Joseph L. Barnes,

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USN (Ret.), Fairfax, Virginia; and Gunnery Sergeant Patrick Corbett, 
USMC (Ret.), Retired Enlisted Association, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
Special Committee on Aging: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
searching for health insurance coverage, focusing on health security 
for people between the ages of 55 and 64, after receiving testimony 
from Lee Anne Fitzpatrick, Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Mike Roach, 
Portland, Oregon, both of Paloma Clothing; Ben Linder, Nutshell 
Enterprises, Redmond, Oregon; Paul Fronstin, Employee Benefit Research 
Institute, Washington, D.C.; Jeanne M. Lambrew, University of Texas at 
Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs; and John Sheils, 
Lewin Group, Falls Church, Virginia.