Senate Conducted Five Committee Hearings Yesterday

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 -- The Senate conducted five committee hearings yesterday:

*Commerce, Science, and Transportation:

Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security:

To examine insurance fraud in America, focusing on current issues facing industry and consumers, after receiving testimony from John D. Doak, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Dennis Jay, Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, and Rachel Weintraub, Consumer Federation of America, all of Washington, D.C.; Sean Kevelighan, Insurance Information Institute, New York, New York; and Timothy J. Lynch, National Insurance Crime Bureau, Des Plaines, Illinois.

*Energy and Natural Resources:

To examine Federal and nonfederal collaboration, including through the use of technology, to reduce wildland fire risk to communities and enhance firefighting safety and effectiveness, after receiving testimony from Victoria C. Christiansen, Deputy Chief, State and Private Forestry, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture; Bryan Rice, Director, Office of Wildland Fire, Department of the Interior; John Maisch, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Fairbanks; Steve King, City of Wenatchee Economic Development Director, Wenatchee, Washington; and Mary Ellen Miller, Michigan Tech Research Institute, Ann Arbor.

Favorably reported the nominations of Brenda Burman, of Arizona, to be Commissioner of Reclamation, and Susan Combs, of Texas, and Douglas W. Domenech, of Virginia, both to be an Assistant Secretary, all of the Department of the Interior, and Paul Dabbar, of New York, to be Under Secretary for Science, and Mark Wesley Menezes, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary, both of the Department of Energy.

*Finance:

To examine the nominations of Gilbert B. Kaplan, of the District of Columbia, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, and Matthew Bassett, of Tennessee, to be an Assistant Secretary, who was introduced by Senator Boozman, and Robert Charrow, of Maryland, to be General Counsel, both of the Department of Health and Human Services, after the nominees testified and answered questions in their own behalf.

*Foreign Relations:

Favorably reported the following business items:

- S. 1697, to condition assistance to the West Bank and Gaza on steps by the Palestinian Authority to end violence and terrorism against Israeli citizens and United States Citizens, with amendments; and

- The nominations of Michael Arthur Raynor, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Maria E. Brewer, of Indiana, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone, John P. Desrocher, of New York, to be Ambassador to the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, and Jay Patrick Murray, of Virginia, to be Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador, and to be an Alternate Representative to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during his tenure of service as Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations, all of the Department of State.

*Judiciary:

Favorably reported the nominations of Jeffrey Bossert Clark, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Attorney General, Peter E. Deegan, Jr., to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, D. Michael Dunavant, to be United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Louis V. Franklin, Sr., to be United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, Marc Krickbaum, to be United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, Jessie K. Liu, of Virginia, to be United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Richard W. Moore, to be United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, all of the Department of Justice.