[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 66 (Thursday, April 24, 2008)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D492-D495]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS: MILITARY CONSTRUCTION
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Military Construction, 
Veterans' Affairs, and Related Agencies concluded a hearing to examine 
proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2009 for military 
construction, after receiving testimony from Tina W. Jonas, Under 
Secretary (Comptroller), Wayne Arny, Deputy Under Secretary for 
Installations and Environment, B.J. Penn, Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy for Installations and Environment, Major General Eugene G. Payne, 
Jr., Assistant Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics 
(Facilities), and Rear Admiral Mark A. Handley, Deputy Commander, Navy 
Installations Command, all of the Department of Defense.
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
Committee on Armed Services: Committee met in closed session to receive 
a briefing on sensitive intelligence matters from officials of the 
intelligence community.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Armed Services: Committee ordered favorably reported 4,206 
nominations in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
SOVEREIGN INVESTMENTS REGULATION
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded a 
hearing to examine United States credit markets, focusing on the United 
States regulatory framework for assessing sovereign wealth

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fund acquisitions and other foreign government investments in the 
United States, after receiving testimony from Scott G. Alvarez, General 
Counsel, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; Ethiopis 
Tafara, Director, Office of International Affairs, U.S. Securities and 
Exchange Commission; Dennis Johnson, California Public Employees' 
Retirement System, Sacramento; Paul Rose, Ohio State University Moritz 
College of Law, Columbus; and David Marchick, Carlyle Group, and Jeanne 
S. Archibald, Hogan and Hartson LLP, both of Washington, D.C.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee ordered 
favorably reported the following:
  S. 2688, to improve the protections afforded under Federal law to 
consumers from contaminated seafood by directing the Secretary of 
Commerce to establish a program, in coordination with other appropriate 
Federal agencies, to strengthen activities for ensuring that seafood 
sold or offered for sale to the public in or affecting interstate 
commerce is fit for human consumption, with an amendment in the nature 
of a substitute;
  S.J. Res. 28, disapproving the rule submitted by the Federal 
Communications Commission with respect to broadcast media ownership;
  S. 2607, to make a technical correction to section 3009 of the 
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005;
  S. 2507, to address the digital television transition in border 
states, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  H.R. 3985, to amend title 49, United States Code, to direct the 
Secretary of Transportation to register a person providing 
transportation by an over-the-road bus as a motor carrier of passengers 
only if the person is willing and able to comply with certain 
accessibility requirements in addition to other existing requirements;
  H.R. 802, to amend the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships to 
implement MARPOL Annex VI, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 2657, to require the Secretary of Commerce to prescribe 
regulations to reduce the incidence of vessels colliding with North 
Atlantic right whales by limiting the speed of vessels, with an 
amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 2482, to repeal the provision of title 46, United States Code, 
requiring a license for employment in the business of salvaging on the 
coast of Florida; and
  Certain promotion lists in the U.S. Coast Guard.
NATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on 
Science, Technology, and Innovation concluded a hearing to examine the 
National Nanotechnology Initiative, focusing on charting the course for 
its reauthorization, after receiving testimony from Richard M. Russell, 
Associate Director and Deputy Director for Technology, Office of 
Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President; 
Robert A. Robinson, Managing Director, Natural Resources and 
Environment, Government Accountability Office; Matthew M. Nordan, Lux 
Research, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts; David Rejeski, Woodrow Wilson 
International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.; P. Lee Ferguson, 
University of South Carolina Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 
Columbia; Anita Goel, Nanobiosym, Inc., Medford, Massachusetts; and Jim 
Heath, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
WATER BILLS
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Water and 
Power concluded a hearing to examine S. 2680, to amend the Reclamation 
Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992 to require the 
Secretary of the Interior to take certain actions to address 
environmental problems associated with the Leadville Mine Drainage 
Tunnel in the State of Colorado, S. 2805, to direct the Secretary of 
the Interior, acting through the Commissioner of Reclamation, to assess 
the irrigation infrastructure of the Rio Grande Pueblos in the State of 
New Mexico and provide grants to, and enter into cooperative agreements 
with, the Rio Grande Pueblos to repair, rehabilitate, or reconstruct 
existing infrastructure, S. 2814, to authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior to provide financial assistance to the Eastern New Mexico 
Rural Water Authority for the planning, design, and construction of the 
Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System, H.R. 29, to authorize the 
Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to provide water for 
irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses from the 
Santa Margarita River, California, H.R. 1803, to direct the Secretary 
of the Interior to conduct a feasibility study to design and construct 
a four reservoir intertie system for the purposes of improving the 
water storage opportunities, water supply reliability, and water yield 
of San Vicente, El Capitan, Murray, and Loveland Reservoirs in San 
Diego County, California in consultation and cooperation with the City 
of San Diego and the Sweetwater Authority, and H.R. 123, to authorize 
appropriations for the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund, after 
receiving testimony from Robert W. Johnson, Commissioner, Bureau of 
Reclamation, Department of the Interior; Susan Parker Bodine, Assistant 
Administrator for

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Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Environmental Protection Agency; 
Martha Rudolph, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 
Denver; Orlando Ortega, Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority, 
Portales; Joseph Michael Chavarria, Santa Clara Pueblo, Espanola, New 
Mexico, on behalf of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council; and 
Milton G. Davies, Fallbrook Public Utility District, Fallbrook, 
California.
CAP-AND-TRADE PROGRAM TAX ASPECTS
Committee on Finance: Committee concluded a hearing to examine tax 
aspects of a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions, after 
receiving testimony from Peter R. Orszag, Director, Congressional 
Budget Office; Robert Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy 
Priorities, Washington, D.C.; and Henry Derwent, International 
Emissions Trading Association, Geneva, Switzerland.
NATIONAL SECURITY REFORM
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine implementing smart power, focusing on setting an agenda for 
national security reform, after receiving testimony from Richard L. 
Armitage, Armitage International, Arlington, Virginia, and Joseph S. 
Nye, Jr., Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, both on behalf of the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies Commission on Smart Power; and James R. Locher, 
III, Project on National Security Reform, and Gordon Adams, American 
University School of International Service, both of Washington, D.C.
INTERNATIONAL DEBT
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine international debt, focusing on creating relief initiatives, 
including S. 2166, to provide for greater responsibility in lending and 
expanded cancellation of debts owed to the United States and the 
international financial institutions by low-income countries, after 
receiving testimony from Clay Lowery, Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury for International Affairs; Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global 
Development, and Gerald F. Flood, United States Conference of Catholic 
Bishops, both of Washington, D.C.; and Peter Blair Henry, Stanford 
University Graduate School of Business, Stanford, California.
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee met in closed session to 
receive a briefing on certain intelligence matters from officials of 
the intelligence community.
IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee 
on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal 
Services, and International Security concluded a hearing to examine 
issues relative to the full range of nuclear technology that Iran 
desires to acquire, focusing on policy options for the United States 
and its allies, after receiving testimony from Senators Specter and 
Feinstein; Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, Principal Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and Patricia 
McNerney, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of 
International Security and Nonproliferation, both of the Department of 
State; Stephen G. Rademaker, BGR Holding, LLC, and Dennis Ross, 
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, both of Washington, D.C.; 
and Graham Allison, Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and 
International Affairs, and Jim Walsh, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, both of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
REFORMING EXPORT LICENSING AGENCIES
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Subcommittee 
on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the 
District of Columbia concluded a hearing to examine reforming export 
licensing agencies for national security and economic interests, 
focusing on the structure of the Federal government's agencies that are 
responsible for licensing controlled exports, the process in place for 
licensing, ways the structures help or hinder their decision-making for 
licenses, human capital challenges of the export control bureaucracy, 
and recommendations for improving the export control processes and 
personal, after receiving testimony from Stephen D. Mull, Acting 
Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs; Beth M. 
McCormick, Director, Defense Technology Security Administration, 
Department of Defense; Matthew S. Borman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, 
Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce; Ann Calvaresi 
Barr, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management, Government 
Accountability Office; and William A. Reinsch, National Foreign Trade 
Council, Daniel B. Poneman, Scowcroft Group, and Edmund B. Rice, 
Coalition for Employment through Exports, Inc., all of Washington, D.C.
FDA
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: Committee 
concluded a hearing to examine the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 
focusing on its ability to ensure the safety of food and the drug 
supply in the United States, after receiving testimony from

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Janet Woodcock, Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food 
and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services; 
William K. Hubbard, former Associate Commissioner for Policy and 
Planning, Food and Drug Administration, Alliance for a Stronger FDA, 
and Robert Brackett, Grocery Manufacturers Association, both of 
Washington, D.C.; J. Glenn Morris, Jr., University of Florida, 
Gainesville; and Gerry Migliaccio, Pfizer Inc., Peapack, New Jersey.
FEDERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT PROCESS
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee concluded an oversight hearing 
to examine recommendations for improving the process for federal 
acknowledgment as an Indian tribe, after receiving testimony from Carl 
J. Artman, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs; 
Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor 
College of Law, Tempe; and Anthony Rivera, Jr., Acjachemen Nation, San 
Juan Capistrano, California.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following:
  H.R. 65, to provide for the recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North 
Carolina;
  S. 1779, to establish a program for tribal colleges and universities 
within the Department of Health and Human Services and to amend the 
Native American Programs Act of 1974 to authorize the provision of 
grants and cooperative agreements to tribal colleges and universities, 
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  H.J. Res. 62, to honor the achievements and contributions of Native 
Americans to the United States, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 1193, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to take into trust 2 
parcels of Federal land for the benefit of certain Indian Pueblos in 
the State of New Mexico; and
  The nomination of Robert G. McSwain, of Maryland, to be Director of 
the Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee ordered favorably reported the 
following:
  S. 2533, to enact a safe, fair, and responsible state secrets 
privilege Act, with amendments;
  S. 702, to authorize the Attorney General to award grants to State 
courts to develop and implement State courts interpreter programs, with 
an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. Res. 511, recognizing that John Sidney McCain, III, is a natural 
born citizen;
  H. Con. Res. 292, honoring Margaret Truman Daniel and her lifetime of 
accomplishments;
  S. Res. 515, commemorating the life and work of Dith Pran; and
  The nominations of Michael G. McGinn, to be United States Marshal for 
the District of Minnesota, and Ralph E. Martinez, of Florida, to be a 
Member of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United 
States, both of the Department of Justice, Mark S. Davis, to be United 
States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, 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.
DELTA-NORTHWEST MERGER
Committee on the Judiciary: Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition 
Policy and Consumer Rights concluded a hearing to examine the merger 
between Delta Air Lines, Inc., and Northwest Airlines, Inc., after 
receiving testimony from Senators Klobuchar and Chambliss; Douglas M. 
Steenland, Northwest Airlines, Inc., Eagan, Minnesota; Richard H. 
Anderson, Delta Air Lines, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia; Kevin Mitchell, 
Business Travel Coalition, Radnor, Pennsylvania; and Darren Bush, 
University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas.
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.