[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 19, 2004)] [Daily Digest] [Pages D531-D533] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Committee Meetings (Committees not listed did not meet) BUSINESS MEETING Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry: Committee ordered favorably reported an original bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to provide children with increased access to food and nutrition assistance, to simplify program operations and improve program management, and to reauthorize child nutrition programs. [[Page D532]] APPROPRIATIONS--DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on the District of Columbia concluded a hearing to examine proposed budget estimates for fiscal year 2005 for the government of the District of Columbia, after receiving testimony from Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Linda W. Cropp, Chair, City Council, and Natwar M. Gandhi, Chief Financial Officer, all of Washington, D.C. IRAQI PRISONER ABUSE Committee on Armed Services: Committee resumed open and closed hearings to examine allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, receiving testimony from General John P. Abizaid, USA, Commander, United States Central Command; and Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, USA, Commander, and Major General Geoffrey D. Miller, USA, Deputy Commander for Detainee Operations, both of Multi-National Force-Iraq. Hearings recessed subject to the Call. IMF AND WORLD BANK Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs: Committee concluded an oversight hearing to examine proposals to reform the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, including the costs and budgetary treatment of multilateral financial institutions' activities, after receiving testimony from John B. Taylor, Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director, Congressional Budget Office; Allan H. Meltzer, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on behalf of American Enterprise Institute; and C. Fred Bergsten, Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C. WATER AND POWER PROJECTS Committee on Energy and Natural Resources: Subcommittee on Water and Power concluded a hearing to examine S. 900, to convey the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project, the Savage Unit of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, and the Intake Irrigation Project to the pertinent irrigation districts; S. 1876, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain lands and facilities of the Provo River Project; S. 1957, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to cooperate with the States on the border with Mexico and other appropriate entities in conducting a hydrogeologic characterization, mapping, and modeling program for priority transboundary aquifers; S. 2304 and H.R. 3209, bills to amend the Reclamation Project Authorization Act of 1972 to clarify the acreage for which the North Loup division is authorized to provide irrigation water under the Missouri River Basin project; S. 2243, to extend the deadline for commencement of construction of a hydroelectric project in the State of Alaska; H.R. 1648, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain water distribution systems of the Cachuma Project, California, to the Carpinteria Valley Water District and the Montecito Water District; and H.R. 1732, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Williamson County, Texas, Water Recycling and Reuse Project, after receiving testimony from John W. Keys III, Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, and Charles G. Groat, Director, U.S. Geological Survey, both of the Department of the Interior; Jerry Nypen, Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project, Sidney, Montana; Andrew B. Core, New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, Santa Fe; John Robert Carman, Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy, Sandy, Utah; Thomas P. Graves, Mid-West Electric Consumers Association, Wheat Ridge, Colorado; and C. Allan Jones, Texas Water Resources Institute, College Station. TERRORISM FINANCING Committee on Finance: Committee held a hearing to examine terrorism financing, focusing on efforts to build domestic and international policies and systems to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing, charities as a means of raising and moving funds and logistical support for terrorists, compliance from Saudi Arabia, and the designation of major foreign financial institutions and businesses as terrorist financiers, receiving testimony from Joseph M. Myers, Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, and Jonathan M. Winer, Alston and Bird, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement, both of Washington, D.C. NOMINATIONS Committee on Finance: Committee concluded a hearing to examine the nominations of Juan Carlos Zarate, of California, to be Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing, and Stuart Levey, of Maryland, to be Under Secretary for Enforcement, both of the Department of the Treasury, and John O. Colvin, of Virginia, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court, after each nominee testified and answered questions in their own behalf. Testimony was also received on the nominations of Mr. Zarate and Mr. Levey from Joseph M. Myers, Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, and Jonathan M. Winer, Alston and Bird, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement, both of Washington, D.C. [[Page D533]] IRAQ'S TRANSITION Committee on Foreign Relations: Committee concluded hearings to examine the way ahead in Iraq, focusing on the Administration's plans for the transition to Iraqi sovereignty, after receiving testimony from Anthony H. Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Phebe Marr, National Defense University, both of Washington, D.C.; General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC (Ret.), former Commander in Chief, United States Central Command, Del Mar, California; and Larry Diamond, Stanford University Hoover Institution, Stanford, California. TRIBAL SELF-GOVERNANCE AMENDMENTS Committee on Indian Affairs: Committee concluded a hearing to examine S. 1696, to amend the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act to provide further self-governance by Indian tribes, after receiving testimony from Don Kashevaroff, Seldovia Village Tribe, Anchorage, Alaska, on behalf of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; Alvin Windy Boy, Sr., Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's Reservation, Box Elder, Montana, on behalf of the Indian Health Service's Tribal Self-Governance Advisory Committee; W. Ron Allen, Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, Sequim, Washington, on behalf of the Title VI Study Team; and Mickey Peercy, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Durant. HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT Special Committee on Aging: Committee concluded a hearing to examine the benefits and risks of Health Savings Accounts as provided for in the Medicare Law, focusing on the future of health care, reducing insurance costs, and enabling more employers to begin or retain health insurance benefits for employees, after receiving testimony from John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury; John C. Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas, Texas; Ronald A. Williams, Aetna, Hartford, Connecticut; Kate Sullivan, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Robert Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, both of Washington, D.C.; and Edward L. Langston, Lafayette, Indiana, on behalf of the American Medical Association.