[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 21892-21893]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           NOTICE OF HEARING


                PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

  Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I would like to announce for the 
information of the Senate and the public that the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing entitled ``Failure to 
Identify Company Owners Impedes Law Enforcement.''
  The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' hearing will examine 
the issue of States routinely incorporating hundreds of thousands of 
new, non-publicly traded companies in the United States each year 
without obtaining the identity of the corporate owners, thereby 
impeding law enforcement investigations into persons misusing U.S. 
shell corporations for money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist 
financing, or other crimes, The hearing will feature the April 2006 
Government Accountability Office (GAO) report prepared at the 
Subcommittee's request, ``Company Formations: Minimal Ownership 
Information Is Collected and Available.'' Witnesses for the upcoming 
hearing will include representatives of GAO, the Department of Justice, 
the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Internal Revenue 
Service, as well as representatives of several states, A final witness 
list will be available on Thursday, November 9, 2006.
  The Subcommittee hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 
at 2:30 p.m. in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. For 
further information, please contact Raymond V. Shepherd III or Elise J. 
Bean, of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations at 224-3721.


                     Subcommittee on National Parks

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I would like to announce for the 
information of the Senate and the public that the Subcommittee on 
National Parks hearing for Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 4 p.m. in 
room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, 
has been postponed until further notice.
  For further information, please contact Tom Lillie at (202) 224-5161, 
David Szymanski at (202) 224-6293, or Sara Zecher 202-224-8276.


                PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS

  Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I would like to announce for the 
information of the Senate and the public that the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security 
and Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing entitled ``The Defense 
Travel System: Boon Or Boondoggle (Part 2).''
  The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations plans to hold this 
second hearing on the Department of Defense's (DOD) Defense Travel 
System (DTS) as part of its ongoing investigation of DOD's travel 
policies and practices. The DTS was intended to be a seamless 
integrated computer-based travel system that would facilitate travel 
for DOD employees and lead to increased

[[Page 21893]]

efficiency and substantial cost savings. Instead, DTS has cost more 
than was anticipated, is not fully deployed, does not appear to be 
widely used and may end up costing more than it has saved. The 
Subcommittee's first hearing on DTS on September 29, 2005, established 
that DOD proceeded with the implementation of DTS despite warnings from 
the DOD Inspector General (IG) and the Secretary of Defense's Program 
Analysis and Evaluation section that DTS might not be the most cost 
effective solution to DOD's travel needs. Following the hearing, the 
Chairman asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the DOD 
IG to respectively determine if the projected cost savings were 
justified and to perform a cost benefit analysis of DTS. The upcoming 
hearing will present the results of those reviews and provide DOD an 
opportunity to respond. Witnesses for the upcoming hearing will be 
representatives of GAO and DOD.
  The Subcommittee hearing is scheduled for Thursday, November 16, 
2006, at 10 a.m. in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. For 
further information, please contact Raymond V. Shepherd, III, Staff 
Director and Chief Counsel to the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations, at 224-3721.

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