[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 22, 2008)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D471-D472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
CREDIT RATING AGENCIES
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine United States credit markets, focusing on the role 
of the credit rating agencies, after receiving testimony from former 
Representative Christopher Cox, Chairman, United States Securities and 
Exchange Commission; and John C. Coffee, Jr., Columbia University Law 
School, Arturo Cifuentes, R.W. Pressprich and Company, Stephen W. 
Joynt, Fitch Ratings, Inc., Claire Robinson, Moody's Investors Service, 
and Vickie A. Tillman, Standard and Poor's, all of New York, New York.
FUTURE OF THE INTERNET
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
a hearing to examine the future of the internet, after receiving 
testimony from Kevin J. Martin, Chairman, Federal Communications 
Commission; Michele Combs, Christian Coalition of America, Robert W. 
Hahn, American Enterprise Institute Center for Regulatory and Market 
Studies, and Kyle McSlarrow, National Cable and Telecommunications 
Association, all of Washington, D.C.; Patric M. Verrone, Writers Guild 
of America, West, Los Angeles, California; Justine Bateman, FM78.tv, 
Studio City, California; and Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School, 
Stanford, California.
FUTURE OF TRANSPORTATION
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee concluded 
a hearing to examine the National Surface Transportation Policy and 
Revenue Study Commission, focusing its report on the future of the 
surface transportation system in the United States, after receiving 
testimony from Frank J. Busalacchi, Wisconsin Department of 
Transportation, Madison; Jack Schenendorf, Covington and Burling, 
Washington, D.C.; and Steve Heminger, Metropolitan Transportation 
Commission, Oakland, California, Matthew K. Rose, BNSF Railway Company, 
Fort Worth, Texas, and Patrick E. Quinn, U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc., 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, all on behalf of the National Surface 
Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
LAND BILLS
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Public Lands 
and Forests concluded a hearing to examine S. 934 and H.R. 1374, bills 
to amend the Florida National Forest Land Management Act of 2003 to 
authorize the conveyance of an additional tract of National Forest 
System land under that Act, S. 2833, to provide for the management of 
certain public land in Owyhee County, Idaho, and S. 2834, to establish 
wilderness areas, promote conservation, and improve public land in 
Washington County, Utah, after receiving testimony from Senators 
Bennett and Crapo; Julie Jacobson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the 
Interior for Land and Minerals Management; Joel Holtrop, Deputy Chief, 
National Forest System, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture; 
James J. Eardley, Washington County, Saint George, Utah; William H. 
Meadows, Washington, D.C., and Craig Gehrke, Boise, Idaho, both of the 
Wilderness Society; and Chad C. Gibson, Owyhee Cattlemen's Association, 
Wilder, Idaho.
INTERNATIONAL DEFORESTATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Committee on Foreign Relations: Subcommittee on International 
Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International 
Environmental

[[Page D472]]

Protection concluded a hearing to examine international deforestation 
and climate change, after receiving testimony from Stuart E. Eizenstat, 
Covington and Burling, LLP, David Hayes, former Deputy Secretary, 
Department of the Interior, and Dirk Forrister, Natsource LLC, all of 
Washington, D.C.; and Kevin Gurney, Purdue University Climate Change 
Research Center (PCCRC), West Lafayette, Indiana.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee ordered favorably reported 
the following:
  H.R. 3320, to provide assistance for the Museum of the History of 
Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, with an amendment;
  S. Con. Res. 74, honoring the Prime Minister of Ireland, Bertie 
Ahern, for his service to the people of Ireland and to the world and 
welcoming the Prime Minister to the United States;
  S. Res. 494, expressing the sense of the Senate on the need for 
Iraq's neighbors and other international partners to fulfill their 
pledges to provide reconstruction assistance to Iraq, with an 
amendment;
  S. Res. 523, expressing the strong support of the Senate for the 
declaration of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at the Bucharest 
Summit that Ukraine and Georgia will become members of the alliance;
  The Protocol of Amendments to the Convention on International 
Hydrographic Organization done at Monaco on April 14, 2005 (Treaty Doc. 
110-09); and
  The nominations of Mark Kimmitt, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of State (Political-Military Affairs), Barbara McConnell 
Barrett, of Arizona, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Finland, Frank 
Charles Urbancic, Jr., of Indiana, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Cyprus, Kurt Douglas Volker, of Pennsylvania, to be United States 
Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization, with the rank and status of Ambassador, Nancy E. 
McEldowney, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Bulgaria, 
Scot A. Marciel, of California, for the rank of Ambassador during his 
tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian 
and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Affairs, Patricia M. 
Haslach, of Oregon, for the rank of Ambassador during her tenure of 
service as United States Senior Coordinator for the Asia-Pacific 
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, William Edward Todd, of Virginia, to 
be Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam, D. Kathleen Stephens, of Montana, 
to be Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Joxel Garcia, of 
Connecticut, to be Medical Director in the Regular Corps of the Public 
Health Service, subject to the qualifications therefor as provided by 
law and regulations, and to be an Assistant Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, Robert J. Callahan, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to 
the Republic of Nicaragua, Peter E. Cianchette, of Maine, to be 
Ambassador to the Republic of Costa Rica, Heather M. Hodges, of Ohio, 
to be Ambassador to the Republic of Ecuador, Hugo Llorens, of Florida, 
to be Ambassador to the Republic of Honduras, Stephen George McFarland, 
of Texas, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala, Samuel W. 
Speck, of Ohio, to be a Commissioner on the part of the United States 
on the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada, 
Barbara J. Stephenson, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Panama, and Yousif Boutrous Ghafari, of Michigan, to be Ambassador to 
the Republic of Slovenia, and a promotion list in the Foreign Service.
INTELLIGENCE
Select Committee on Intelligence: Committee held closed hearings on 
intelligence matters, receiving testimony from officials of the 
intelligence community.
   Committee recessed subject to the call.