[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 8, 2011)]
[Daily Digest]
[Pages D613-D614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Committee Meetings
(Committees not listed did not meet)
APPROPRIATIONS: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Financial Service and 
General Government concluded a hearing to examine proposed budget 
estimates for fiscal year 2012 for the Internal Revenue Service, after 
receiving testimony from Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner, Internal 
Revenue Service.
STATUS OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Department of Homeland 
Security concluded a hearing to examine a review of the status of 
emergency management in the United States, including the important role 
communications systems play during a disaster, after receiving 
testimony from Craig Fugate, Administrator, Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, and Rand Beers, Under Secretary, National Protection 
and Programs Directorate, both of the Department of Homeland Security; 
Mark S. Riley, Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and 
Emergency Preparedness Chief of Staff, Baton Rouge; David W. Vice, 
Indiana Integrated Public Safety Commission Executive Director, 
Indianapolis; H. Edward Hicks, Jr., Morgan County Emergency Management 
Director, Decatur, Alabama, on behalf of the U.S. Council of the 
International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM-USA); and Ron 
Lane, County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services, San Diego, 
California.
BUSINESS MEETING
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Committee ordered 
favorably reported the following business items:
  S. 50, to strengthen Federal consumer product safety programs and 
activities with respect to commercially-marketed seafood by directing 
the Secretary of Commerce to coordinate with the Federal Trade 
Commission and other appropriate Federal agencies to strengthen and 
coordinate those programs and activities;
  S. 179, to expand the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallones 
National Marine Sanctuary and the Cordell Bank National Marine 
Sanctuary;
  S. 183, to clarify the applicability of certain maritime laws with 
respect to the blowout and explosion of the mobile offshore drilling 
unit Deepwater Horizon, with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute;
  S. 911, to establish the sense of Congress that Congress should 
enact, and the President should sign, bipartisan legislation to 
strengthen public safety and to enhance wireless communications, with 
an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
  S. 962, to reauthorize the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation 
Initiative Act to promote the protection of the resources of the 
Northwest Straits; and
  A routine list in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
and U.S. Coast Guard.
AIR QUALITY AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Committee on Environment and Public Works: Subcommittee on Clean Air 
and Nuclear Safety with the Subcommittee on Children's Health and 
Environmental Responsibility concluded joint hearings to examine air 
quality and children's health, after receiving testimony from Dona J. 
Upson, Albuquerque, New Mexico, on behalf of the American Lung 
Association and the American Thoracic Society; James E. Ginda, Kent 
Hospital, Warwick, Rhode Island; Margo Thorning, American Council for 
Capital Formation, Washington, D.C.; Patty Resnik, Christiana Care 
Health System, Newark, Delaware; and Julie E. Goodman, Cambridge, 
Massachusetts.
NOMINATION
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine the nomination of Ryan C. Crocker, of Washington, to be 
Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Department of State, 
after the nominee, who was introduced by Senator McCain, testified and 
answered questions in his own behalf.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine the nominations of D. Brent Hardt, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, James Harold Thessin, of 
Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay, Jonathan Don 
Farrar, of California, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Nicaragua, 
and Lisa J. Kubiske, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of 
Honduras, all of the Department of State, after the nominees testified 
and answered questions in their own behalf.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION DIRECTOR
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
the President's request to extend the service of Director Robert 
Mueller of the Federal Bureau of Investigation until 2013, including S. 
1103, to extend the term of the incumbent Director of the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation, after receiving

[[Page D614]]

testimony from Robert S. Mueller III, Director, Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, and James B. Comey, former Deputy Attorney General, both 
of the Department of Justice; William Van Alstyne, College of William 
and Mary Marshall-Wythe Law School, Williamsburg, Virginia; and John C. 
Harrison, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
NOMINATIONS
Committee on the Judiciary: Committee concluded a hearing to examine 
the nominations of Stephen A. Higginson, of Louisiana, to be United 
States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, and Jane Margaret Triche-
Milazzo, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of 
Louisiana, who were both introduced by Senators Landrieu and Vitter, 
Alison J. Nathan, and Katherine B. Forrest, both to be United States 
District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and Susan Owens 
Hickey, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of 
Arkansas, who was introduced by Senators Pryor and Boozman, after the 
nominees testified and answered questions in their own behalf.
VETERANS' AFFAIRS BILLS
Committee on Veterans' Affairs: Committee concluded a hearing to 
examine pending calendar business, after receiving testimony from 
Senators Snowe, Whitehouse, Warner, and Blumenthal; Michael Cardarelli, 
Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, Veterans Benefits 
Administration, Robert L. Jesse, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for 
Health, and Walter A. Hall, and Richard J. Hipolit, both Assistant 
General Counsel, all of the Veterans Health Administration, Department 
of Veterans Affairs; John McWilliam, Deputy Assistant Secretary of 
Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training Service; Jeff Steele, 
American Legion, Joseph A. Violante, Disabled American Veterans, 
Raymond C. Kelley, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and 
J. David Cox, American Federation of Government Employees, all of 
Washington, D.C.; and Jerome Ensminger, Elizabethtown, North Carolina.