Weekly Committee hearing update

[TayTay]

Not a really intensive week. There are some interesting hearings, but this is a pre-recess week in the Congress and the Senate is deferring to the House debate on Iraq.

[TayTay]

1. Small Biz: 2/13 10am

02/13/07 Hearing Alternatives for Easing the Small Business Health Care Burden DC

The Chairman of the Small Biz committee has called a hearing to discuss real things tht actually affect real people.

Pick up the webcast here: http://sbc.senate.gov/events.cfm

*************

Yeah, that sounds good. These are great hearings, btw.

[TayTay]

5. Kick. Live webcast today

Chairman Kerry convenes this hearing to discuss Small Biz and Health care at 10 AM today.

http://sbc.senate.gov/
Audio only!

See yuhz there!

Witnesses:

Below is a list of participants for the hearing titled "Participants for the hearing titled "Alternatives for Easing the Small Business Health Care Burden." Click on their names to read prepared testimony.


Mr. Tarren Bragdon
Director of Health Reform Initiatives, The Maine Heritage Policy Center

Mr. John Kingsdale
Executive Director, Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority

Ms. Ann Sullivan
President, Legislative Consultant for Women Impacting Public Policy

Ms. Mary Beth Senkewicz
Independent Consultant (Former Senior Policy and Legislative Advisor, National Association of Insurance Commissioners)

Mr. William F. Sweetnam, Jr.
Former Benefits Tax Counsel, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of Treasury

[Inuca]

6. Great & interesting picture

of JK on the site.

[whometense]

7. I LOVE that picture.

It's so defiant. :loveya:

[Inuca]

8. Yep!

That's what I meant by interesting, I bet it makes alot of people uncomfortable :-).

[MBS]

11. can you post the link to the picture?

I couldn't find anything except the title to the hearing. Link to Sen. Kerry's statement is not operating.

[whometense]

12. Link:

[TayTay]

2. Senate Finance: 2/15, Trade and Budgets

The Administration's 2007 Trade Agenda

February 15, at 10:00 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Member Statements:
Max Baucus, MT
Charles Grassley, IA

Witness Statements:

Ambassador Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Representative, Washington, DC
****************

Pay attention. This stuff matters. Really.

[TayTay]

3. SFRC: 2/15 Iraq & Afghanistan Ambassdor hearings. Kerry chairs

Nominations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

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Time: 9:15 AM
Place: 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Kerry

Nominees:
The Honorable Ryan C. Crocker
To be Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq

The Honorable William B. Wood
To be Ambassador to the Islamic Republic
of Afghanistan

***************

about says it all. (No interruptions from Biden. Oh hell, tune in for that alone.)

[ginnyinWI]

9. the upside to Biden and Dodd's campaigns!

That will leave JK minding the SFRC store more often! :)

[TayTay]

10. I agree Ginny. That will be a nice side benefit.

This is the subcommittee:

Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
John F. Kerry, Chairman
Christopher J. Dodd
Russell D. Feingold
Barbara Boxer
Benjamin L. Cardin

Norm Coleman, Ranking Member
Chuck Hagel
John E. Sununu
George V. Voinovich

That is, potentially, an interesting bunch of folks. This could be interesting. Of course, if only the Chairman and the RM show, it will still be interesting as long as the Chair asks more questions than the RM. (LOL! I am not a fan of Coleman.)

Countries under jurisdiction here: South and Central Asia
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan
http://www.state.gov/p/sca/

Near Eastern Countries:
Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/

They have maps and everything at the State Dept. (Oh dear, way to excited again. Must calm down.)

[TayTay]

4. Commerce, Wed, 2/14. Two hearings.

Overseas Sweatshop Abuses, Their Impact on U.S. Workers, and the Need for Anti-Sweatshop Legislation
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
10:00 AM

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Witnesses

No Witnesses Scheduled At This Time (OMG, no witnesses on Valentine's Day.)

***********************************
***********************************



Oversight Hearing on Recent Setbacks to the Coast Guard Deepwater Program
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
02:30 PM

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Witnesses

No Witnesses Scheduled At This Time

**********


Hey, that tall Sen. From MAss is on both sub-committees. Then again, it is Valentine's Day.

[karynnj]

13. Kerry up on coast guard committee now - opening statement

He's been on committee 20 years and says that they are billions of dollars behind what is needed especially with drug responsibility since 1980s and port security since 911.

Bad management: Contractors were allowed to make too many management decisions.

Lockheed/ Martin made questionable profits and Northrup Grumman - both should be dropped. wants contracts rebid. Wants money recouped from Lockheed. Kerry says his info not from NYC, but the inspector general. L/M also provided stuff through subsidiaries that didn't work.

These actions didn't increase security. Really hitting buying security things that can't tell the difference between bananas and bombs. Not happy with contracts on Katrina.

The new Minnesota Senator speaking now - mentioned that Senator Lautenberg said she was the only one with no ocean - and suggested she ask for one - she said they have 1000 lakes and Lake Superior.

[karynnj]

14. Admiral Allen now

says they will adjust the Lockheed/Martin and Nothrup/Gruman contracts. Send a letter to everyone telling them that the Inspector General is looking into things. (It will be interesting given this position to hear any questions Kerry may have for him.)

[karynnj]

15. Starting questions

Lead system integrater is a problem Cantwell asking questions now - it's clear the experts are saying they need third party assesment. (Erosion of the internal coast guard technical expertise. Also the coast guard can't do cost management either.)

Now Senator Snow - says the National security cutter (NSC) won't even last the number years it was suppose to. They knew this along time ago, but they kept going. All the modifications and the fact that it wouldn't be done on time or last as long as it was suppose to - were not brought to the committee.

Allen: Problems were not recoverable, they didn't document anything - so it's not auditable! (interesting defense)

Skinner: contract was clear - the specification - vessel would be used for 230 days. but there was confusion.

Lautenberg: Mystifying what went wrong to the degree it did - example of fox in the chicken coop.
Allen: It's complex. we need this competency.
Lautenberg: The oversight has to be better
Allen: We hired more to look at this - If properly organized we may have enough to get this right. Allen admits they excluded the engineers from the design process - so they had to move complaints up the latter.

Vitter now - but he's boring

[karynnj]

16. Kerry referring to a 2004 memo

that Lautenberg mentioned.

It outlines all kinds of flaws in the boats. Kerry says they are significant led to $500 million fix. Admiral Brown says the subject expert tried to work with them but the process shut down this input.

May 2006 contract extended with no corrections. Kerry has his glasses on. Kerry asks why with the obstinance in working with the CG did they renew the contract. Allen says he give him a lsit of what was fixed. Allen says they renewed it because of how they wrote the contract in 2002.
Now, Allen says they haven't renewed it. Kerry wants to know why it's not being put out to bid. Allen has a work group ... Kerry says they have to stay in touch - but they need accountability.

Kerry says there's a power accountability that's out of wack.

[karynnj]

17. second panel - waiting for Kerry (but got tired of following)

The second panel is pretty much the government engineers who were ignored. One answer to Snowe was that maybe they were listened to sometime - but mostly they weren't.