10:30 am – Examining the Single Payer Health Care Option

House Committee on Education and Labor
Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Hearing

Witnesses:

1. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
2. Marcia Angell, M.D, Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
3. David Gratzer, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
4. Geri Jenkins, R.N., Co-President
   California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, San Diego, CA
5. Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H., National Board Advisor Physicians for a National Health Program, Philadelphia, PA
6. Additional Witnesses TBA

Live coverage is scheduled by committee webstream and C-SPAN Radio (schedule, real player link, more links).

C-SPAN TV is scheduled to cover the hearing and broadcast it later in the day (watch schedule for time and station).

C-SPAN Video Library will archive the hearing for later viewing (link).

For some great background on Single Payer, see the fact sheet from PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program): Single-Payer National Health Insurance. The short version is:

BILL MOYERS: But then let’s establish what single-payer is. Can you do that succinctly?

DR. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN: It’s what we used to call national health insurance. So government collects the money for health care from taxes, you don’t pay premiums, instead you pay taxes, and pays all the bills. Hospitals remain privately owned and operated. Doctors remain mostly in private practice. But their bills go to the government insurance program, just as they do today with Medicare, but we’d be able to streamline the payment system if we had only one payer instead of Medicare being one among many.

So a hospital would get paid like a fire department does today. You have one check a month that pays for the entire operation. And that means you can eliminate the huge billing apparatus of the hospitals and the doctors offices where we’re employing many people to do our billing. And fighting with insurance companies. You save $400 billion a year that way.

For an analysis of the three Single Payer bills now before Congress, see BargainCountertenor’s fabulous diary: Single Payer Bills in Congress: First Impressions.

HR 676 was first introduced in 2003 to the 108th Congress by Representative John Conyers and has been introduced to in every Congress since, getting more support each session.

From PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program), as of last year:

HR-676 has been endorsed by over 417 union organizations in 48 states including 107 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 33 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO,MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA & AK).

It has the vigourous support of the largest Nurse’s Union (CNA/NNOC), and the largest Nurses professional association (ANA). And the National Association of Social Workers.

It was endorsed last year by largest physician specialty group, the American College of Physicians which represents Internists, and in a recent editorial in their professional journal (.pdf).

And of course Physicians for a National Program (PNHP) with organized activists in most States.

It has been recently endorsed by the U..S. Conference of Mayors.

Oh yes… HR-676 has also been endorsed by the Assembly of the Urban Caucus of the Episcopal Church, General Board on Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association of the Presbyterian Church (USA). And most recently Unitarian-Universalist.

More on today’s hearings, what it means and a call to action from National Nurses Movement at Daily Kos: Congressional Hearing to Consider Single-Payer Healthcare:

The official silence on Capitol Hill on single payer — at least in the House — is ending.

Thanks to the ongoing pressure and dedication of single payer activists across the country, who the Washington Post noted this past weekend, "have spent months hounding Democratic lawmakers and organizing demonstrations, including one that resulted in 13 arrests at a Senate hearing last month," a Congressional committee will for the first time in the current proceedings on healthcare reform, hold a public hearing on single payer Wednesday.

… a key priority of the insurance industry throughout this process has been shutting out discussion of single-payer reforms, and their own uselessness…so in that regards this is a real victory for healthcare reform

x-posted at oxdown

Witnesses:

• Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize recipient, 2001; University Professor, Columbia University; former chairman, Council of Economic Advisers
• Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT’s Sloan School of Management; Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute; former Economic Counselor, International Monetary Fund. cofounder of blog The Baseline Scenario
• Thomas M. Hoenig, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

UPDATED with audio archive:
Download audio file (20090421-Too-Big-to-Fail-or-Too-Big-to-Save_.mp3)

(note: The Congressmembers’ voices are louder than the witnesses)

From Stiglitz’s prepared statement (pdf):

A good financial system manages risk and allocates capital, with the intent of increasing the overall efficiency of the economy; it does this with low transaction costs. However, we have a financial system which created risk and misallocated capital, with high transaction costs. While capital was being misallocated to homes beyond people’s ability to pay and in places where homes were not needed, too little capital was being deployed to new start-ups, to create and expand small and medium size enterprises, which are the bases of a dynamic economy.

A small part of our financial system, the venture capital firms, is responsible for a large part of our economy’s economic growth. While our big banks have not been at the center of this dynamic growth, they have been at the center of this tempest; they have created risk to our country, without any offsetting rewards—though to be sure those in the industry have been rewarded well.

Other parts of our financial system have done a good job—community banks, credit unions and local banks—in supplying consumers, small and medium sized enterprises with the finance they need.

But we should also be aware of the inadequacies of our financial system—beyond the failures in risk management and capital allocation that led to this crisis. Our financial system discovered that there was money at the bottom of the pyramid and made a concerted effort to make sure that they money did not remain there. They engaged in predatory lending; it is ironic that they were hoisted by their own petard in the sub-prime mortgages.

…we need to admit that those that predicted dire consequences to come from the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act were correct. They warned about conflicts of interest, the increase in concentration of the banking system, with increasing risks of too-big-to-fail institutions—and increasing systemic risk as a result. They warned about the consequences of transferring the investment banking culture to the commercial banks, who are entrusted with the management of the payment system and ordinary individuals’ savings—insured by the government. The critics suggested that the benefits from economies of scope and scale were exaggerated, and, if present at all, these were almost surely outweighed by the costs. As painful as it may be, we need to revisit these questions. Depression-era regulations may not be appropriate for the twenty-first century, but what was needed was not stripping away regulations but adapting the regulatory system to the new realities, e.g. the enhanced risk posed by derivatives and securitization.

The process of breaking them up may be slow; there may be political resistance—even if the shareholders have not done well, their officers have, and their political contributions have not gone unnoticed.

In environmental economics there is the basic principle of the polluter pays. Those who pollute must pay the cost of clean-up. It is a matter of efficiency and equity. The too- big-to-fail institutions have contributed to the pollution of the global economy with toxic mortgages; they should now pay for the cost of clean-up.

We should recognize that, in a sense, the too-big-to fail institutions have succeeded in managing their risk well—but not in the way advertised. A relatively small investment in campaign contributions (the combined campaign contributions of U.S. financial, insurance, and real-estate firms has been estimated at around $5 billion over the past decade) has succeeded in transferring losses to the public, estimated well in excess of a trillion dollars.

Yes, apparently the too-big-to fail institutions have succeeded in managing their risk — by transferring it, with the help of both the Bush and Obama administrations, onto the rest of us.

(thanks to cbl2 who alerted me of this hearing)

x-posted at oxdown.

fair use statement: Please note, most of these files are recorded directly from the Senate or House Committee feed. Material posted here is for educational and research purposes which we believe constitutes a ‘fair use’. If you are a copyright holder and object to any material posted here, please contact us to have it removed.

Today was the day I finally lost it. After hundreds of hours spent on Congressional committee hearings (listening to audio streams or reading transcripts), after over 40 oxdown hearing diaries since September and more than 100 hearing postings before that (starting when scarecrow asked me to include hearing info in the thread of his Monday morning posts at firedoglake), today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing with Geithner, Bernanke and Dudley was just too much.

I’m sick of watching hearings organized into 5 min question periods designed for sound bites and YouTube clips. I’m sick of watching ignorant Congress Members who can’t be bothered to stay for the whole hearing ask questions which if we’re lucky were written by a competent aide (which means the Congress Member doesn’t know enough to ask effective follow up) or if we’re not lucky are faux outrage grandstanding for a YouTube clip. I’m sick of watching witnesses permitted as Geithner, Bernanke and Dudley were today to distract, delay and in the end obscure when we are in such need of transparency and accountability.

Enough already.

Message to Congress: We’re in an economic crisis. A crisis that began a year and a half ago and that you have yet to show any interest in understanding let alone taking effective action to address. That has got to change. Right now. No more business as usual. It’s time to put aside your egos and your plans for re-election because it’s way past time for you to focus on what needs to be done for the millions of people who depend on you.

I know I’m not alone in being frustrated because rarely have I had to listen to a hearing alone (and for that I am profoundly grateful). So I’m going appeal to all my dear fellow hearing watchers: What do you think needs to be done? What should we be demanding from the committees?

Yesterday I called both the House Financial Services and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committees and was told that there are no rules or other impediments for having committee counsel (or other committee staff) do the questioning during hearings. That’s something I think we need – knowledgeable, experienced lawyers questioning the witnesses. And they should have a support staff that includes the best investigators that can be found. When I mentioned this to William Black during his visit here yesterday he replied, as he had to several other questions, that what we need is our own Pecora investigation (something that John Anderson also recently suggested). From Wikipedia:

Following the Wall Street Crash, the U.S. economy had gone into a depression, and a large number of banks failed. The Pecora Commission initiated major reform of the American financial system. As Chief Counsel, Ferdinand Pecora personally examined many high-profile witnesses that included some of the nation’s most influential bankers and stockbrokers. As the Commission’s first witness, Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, declared that "The Exchange’s refusal to pay heed to popular demand for reform was simply a manifestation of courage to do those things which are right, regardless of how unpopular they may be for the time being." Other important members of the Wall Street financial community to give testimony before the Commission included investment bankers Otto H. Kahn, Charles E. Mitchell, Thomas W. Lamont, and Albert H. Wiggin, plus celebrated commodity market speculators such as Arthur W. Cutten. Given wide media coverage, the testimony of the powerful banker J.P. Morgan, Jr. caused a public outcry after he admitted under examination that he and many of his partners had not paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932.

As reiterated by SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt during his 1995 testimony before the United States House of Representatives, the Pecora Commission uncovered a wide range of abusive practices on the part of banks and bank affiliates. These included a variety of conflicts of interest such as the underwriting of unsound securities in order to pay off bad bank loans as well as "pool operations" to support the price of bank stocks. The hearings galvanized broad public support for new securities laws. As a result of the Pecora Commission’s findings, the United States Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, instituting disclosure laws for corporations seeking public financing, and in 1935 formed the SEC as a means to enforce the new Acts.

In 1939 Ferdinand Pecora published his memoirs that recounted details of the investigations. Titled "Wall Street Under Oath", Pecora wrote: "Bitterly hostile was Wall Street to the enactment of the regulatory legislation." As to disclosure rules, he stated that "Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker’s stoutest allies."

Of course, the key to this kind of real investigation is who would lead it. William Black told us "Jack Blum and Saul Wisenberg (Dem., Rep) as counsel. Hire Dick Newsom and Chris Seefer as your key investigators".

Sounds good to me.

I’m considering calling up every single member of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow and demanding that they take the necessary steps to begin our own Pecora-type investigation: the Blum-Wisenberg investigation. In the mean time they could immediately make the hearings more effective by 1) staying for the entire hearing – they might learn something, 2) giving their time for questioning the witnesses to the most appropriate committee staff person and 3) dispensing with the 5 min rule.

What do you think?

x-posted at oxdown, see link for discussion

I’m a blogger. Actually, that’s my primary… I’m trying to get people to introduce me, not as an MIT professor, but as a blogger. Somehow they don’t want to do that yet, they still talk about the MIT connection for whatever reason. They think it has more legitimacy. I think the blogosphere has more legitimacy for this sort of thing.

Live streaming is expected at most committee websites (see links below) and CSPAN (schedule). Direct realplayer links are: CSPAN, CSPAN-2, CSPAN-3, CSPAN Radio.

Also, for most Senate hearing rooms, there is a live audio feed provided by CSPAN. Although they are not always activated, when they are it’s a great alternative link especially for dial up. Check the room number of the hearing in the list below and then click the room’s audio realplayer link on the list of links I’ve compiled.

…

??? – Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation – room S-216
Nomination Hearings:

• John P. Holdren, of Massachusetts, to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Department of Commerce
• Jane Lubchenco, of Oregon, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, Department of Commerce

9:30 am – House Veterans’ Affairs and Senate Veterans’ Affairs – room SD-106
Joint hearings to examine legislative presentations of veterans’ service organizations.

9:30 am – Senate Indian Affairs – SD-628
Hearings to examine the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2009 for tribal priorities.

9:30 am – Senate Energy and Natural Resources – room SD-366
Hearings to examine proposed legislation regarding siting of electricity transmission lines, including increased federal siting authority and regional transmission planning.

Witnesses
Panel 1

• The Honorable Jon Wellinghoff , Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• The Honorable Tony Clark , Representing NARUC

Panel 2

• Mr. Reid Detchon , Energy Future Coalition
• Mr. James Dickenson , JEA
• Mr. Joseph Welch , ITC Holdings, Corporation
• Mr. Michael Morris , American Electric Power
• Mr. Graham Edwards , Midwest ISO

9:30 am – House Appropriations
Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee
On what works for successful prisoner reentry.

10:00 am – Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – room SD-538
Hearings to examine sustainable transportation solutions, focusing on investing in transit to meet 21st century challenges

10:00 am – Senate Budget – room SD-608
Hearings to examine the President’s fiscal year 2010 budget and revenue proposals.

Witness:

• The Honorable Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary, Department of the Treasury

10:00 am – Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation – room SR-253
Hearings to examine climate science, focusing on empowering our response to climate change.

10:00 am – Senate Finance – room SD-215
Hearings to examine workforce issues in health care reform, focusing on assessing the present and preparing for the future; Business meeting to consider the nomination of Ronald Kirk, of Texas, to be United States Trade Representative, with the rank of Ambassador.

10:00 am – Senate Judiciary – room SD-226
Business meeting to consider S.49, to help Federal prosecutors and investigators combat public corruption by strengthening and clarifying the law, and the nomination of Dawn Elizabeth Johnsen, of Indiana, to be an Assistant Attorney General.

10 am – House Agriculture
Business Meeting to consider the Budget Views and Estimates Letter of the Committee on Agriculture for the agencies and programs under jurisdiction of the Committee for fiscal year 2010

10 am – House Appropriations
Defense Subcommittee
On Army and Marine Corps force protection.

10 am – House Appropriations
Homeland Security Subcommittee
On securing the nation’s rail and transit systems.

10 am – House Appropriations
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee
On challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs.

10 am – House Appropriations
Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee
On the transportation challenges of rural America.

10 am – House Armed Services
On recommendations of the comptroller general for improving departmental management at the Department of Defense.

Witness:

• Gene Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General, GAO.

10 am – House Budget
On the proposed FY 2010 budget for the Department of Education.

Witness:

• Arne Duncan, Secretary, Department of Education.

10 am – House Education and Labor and House Judiciary
Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee
Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee
Joint hearing on lost educational opportunities in alternative settings.

10 am – House Energy and Commerce
Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee
On funds for the Universal Service program.

Witnesses:

• LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., Chairman of the Board, U.S. Cellular
• Steve Davis, Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Government Relations, Qwest Corporation
• Mark Gailey, President and General Manager, Totah Communications
• Tom Gerke, Chief Executive Officer, Embarq
• Gregory A. Hale, General Manager, Logan Telephone Cooperative, Inc.
• Joel E. Lubin, Vice President, Public Policy, AT&T
• Tom Tauke, Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Policy & Communications, Verizon
• Derek Turner, Research Director, Free Press
• Scott Wallsten, Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow, The Technology Policy Institute

10 am – House Energy and Commerce
Energy and Environment Subcommittee
On consumer protection policies in climate legislation.

Witnesses:

• Robert Greenstein, Executive Director, Center on Budget Policies and Priorities
• Sonny Popowsky, Consumer Advocate of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Office of the Consumer Advocate
• Steve Kline, Vice President of Corporate Environmental and Federal Affairs, PG&E Corporation
• John S. Hill, Director for Economic and Environmental Justice, United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
• Steven F. Hayward, American Enterprise Institute
• Mike Carey, Ohio Coal Association

10 am – House Financial Services
Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee
On the practices and implications of mark-to-market accounting rules.

Witnesses

Panel 1:

• Mr. James Kroeker, Acting Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Mr. Robert Herz, Chairman, Financial Accounting Standards Board
• Mr. Kevin Bailey, Deputy Comptroller for Regulatory Policy, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Panel 2:

• Mr. Jeff Mahoney, General Counsel, Council of Institutional Investors
• Ms. Cindy Fornelli, Executive Director, Center for Audit Quality
• Mr. Thomas Bailey, Chairman, Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Brentwood Bank
• Mr. Lee Cotton, Past President, Commercial Mortgage Securities Association
• Ms. Tanya Beder, Chairman, SBCC Group
• Mr. Robert D. McTeer, Distinguished Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis
• The Honorable William Isaac, Chairman, The Secura Group of LECG

10 am – House Financial Services
International Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee
On H.R. 1327 – Iran Sanctions Enabling Act

Witnesses:

• The Honorable Ted Deutch, Senator, State of Florida
• Mr. Trita Parsi, President, National Iranian-American Council
• Mr. Jason Isaacson, Director of Government and International Affairs, American Jewish Committee
• Professor Orde F. Kittrie, Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

10 am – House Foreign Affairs
Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee
On U.S. foreign economic policy in the global crisis.

Witnesses:

• Simon Johnson, Ph.D., Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, Global Economics and Management (GEM), MIT Sloan School of Management, (Former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund)
• Peter Morici, Ph.D., Professor of Logistics, Business and Public Policy, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, (Former Director of Economics at the U.S. International Trade Commission)
• C. Fred Bergsten, Ph.D., Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics, (Former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs of the U.S. Treasury)
• Philip I. Levy, Ph.D., Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, (Former Senior Economist for Trade on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors)
• Lori Wallach, Esq., Director, Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen

10 am – House Homeland Security
Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee
On an examination of the Department of Homeland Security’s strategies and resources for combating and responding to violence in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Witnesses:

• Vice Admiral Roger T. Rufe Jr. (USCG Ret), Director, Office of Operations Coordination, Department of Homeland Security
• Alonzo Peña, Department of Homeland Security Attaché, U.S. Embassy, Mexico
• John Leech, Acting Director, Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security
• Salvador Nieto, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Intelligence and Operations Coordination Customs and Border Protection
• Kumar Kibble, Deputy Director, Office of Investigations Immigration and Customs Enforcement

10 am – House Oversight and Government Reform
National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
On violence on the U.S.-Mexico border connected to narcotics trafficking, weapons smuggling, and bulk cash smuggling

10 am – House Science and Technology
Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee
On past problems and the future of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

10 am – House Small Business
Contracting and Technology Subcommittee
On ensuring stimulus contracts for small and veteran-owned businesses.

10 am – House Ways and Means
Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee
On organizing the subcommittee for the 111th Congress and on efforts to mitigate energy costs for low-income households while curbing global warming.

Witnesses:

• Terry Dinan, Ph.D., Senior Advisor for Climate Issues, Congressional Budget Office
• Dallas Burtraw, Ph. D., Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future
• Chad Stone, Ph.D., Chief Economist, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Lord Christopher Monckton, Chief Policy Advisor, Science and Public Policy Institute

11 am – House Appropriations
State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee
On the status of Africa focusing on the areas of the Great Lakes, Sudan, and the Horn.

1 pm – House Appropriations
Agriculture Subcommittee
On domestic nutrition programs.

1 pm – House Armed Services
Military Personnel Subcommittee
On military resale, morale, welfare and recreation.

1:30 pm – House Appropriations
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee
On family and troop housing.

2:30 pm – Senate Energy and Natural Resources – room SD-366
Nomination hearing:

• David J. Hayes, of Virginia, to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

x-posted at oxdown

kucinich to kashkari: no one questions that you are working hard. our question is who are you working for?

Kucinich actually comes to hearings prepared and frequently asks both good questions and good follow up questions.

Live streaming is expected at most committee websites (see links below) and CSPAN (schedule). Direct realplayer links are: CSPAN, CSPAN-2, CSPAN-3, CSPAN Radio.

Also, for most Senate hearing rooms, there is a live audio feed provided by CSPAN. Although they are not always activated, when they are it’s a great alternative link especially for dial up. Check the room number of the hearing in the list below and then click the room’s audio realplayer link on the list of links I’ve compiled.

…

9:30 am – House Appropriations
Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee
On assessment of the serious and violent offender reentry initiative.

9:30 am – House Financial Services
Markup of S. 383 – To amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to provide the Special Inspector General with additional authorities and responsibilities, and the report on the FY 2010 budget views and estimates.

10 am – House Agriculture
Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Subcommittee
On reviewing animal identification systems.

10 am – House Appropriations
Interior and Environment Subcommittee
On oversight of the U.S. Forest Service.

10 am – House Appropriations
Defense Subcommittee
On soldier equipment, ergonomics and injuries.

10 am – House Appropriations
Financial Services Subcommittee
On the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the financial crisis.

Witness:

• Mary Shapiro, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission.

Note on Mary Shapiro: from LA Times:

While the SEC is incompetent, the securities industry’s self-policing organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is “very corrupt,” Markopolos charged. That organization was headed until December by Mary Schapiro, President Barack Obama’s new SEC chief.

10 am – House Armed Services
On security challenges arising from the global financial crisis.

Witnesses:

• Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations
• Richard Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University
• Dov Zakheim, former Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
• David Rothkopf, Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

10 am – House Education and Labor
Markup of H.R. 1388 – Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act.

10 am – House Energy and Commerce
Health Subcommittee
On revising the food safety system.

10 am – House Foreign Affairs
On a new beginning for U.S. policy in the Americas.

• Mr. Peter Hakim, President, The Inter-American Dialogue
• Mr. Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, President, McLarty Associates
• The Honorable Otto J. Reich, President, Otto Reich Associates, LLC, (Former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs)

Note on Otto Reich: from wikipedia (more at the link):

From 1983 to 1986, Reich established and managed the inter-agency Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean. The OPD declassified Central Intelligence Agency information and disseminated it to influence public opinion and spur Congress to continue to fund the Reagan’s administration’s campaign against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. The OPD was highly controversial and was criticized by numerous government sources, including a staff report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which characterized it as a domestic political and propaganda operation.[3] In 1987, an investigation by the Comptroller General determined that the OPD engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities, beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities". The OPD also violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.”[1]

10 am – House Natural Resources
Markup of pending resources legislation.

10 am – House Oversight and Government Reform
Domestic Policy Subcommittee (Kucinich chairs this subcommittee)
On oversight of TARP focusing on assessing the Department of Treasury’s efforts to prevent waste and abuse of taxpayer funds.

Witnesses
Panel 1

• Neel Kashkari, Acting Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stabilization, Department of Treasury

Panel 2

• Professor Anthony B. Sanders, W.P Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
• Stephen Horne , VP, Master Data Management and Integration Services, Dow Jones & Co.
• Mark Bolgiano, President and CEO, XBRL US, Inc.

Panel 3

• Neil M. Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program
• Richard Hillman, Managing Director, Financial Markets and Community Investment, Government Accountability Office

10 am – House Science and Technology
Energy and Environment Subcommittee
On FutureGen and the Department of Energy’s advanced coal programs. The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on near-term and long-term strategies to accelerate research, development and
demonstration of advanced technologies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new and
existing coal-fired power plants.

10 am – House Small Business
Regulations, Healthcare, and Trade Subcommittee
On how the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture have responded to the recent rash of food recalls and how they will work with small businesses.

10 am – House Ways and Means
Markup of the report to the FY 2010 budget views and estimates and on expanding coverage, improving the quality, and controlling costs of healthcare.

Witnesses

• John Z. Ayanian, M.D., MPP, on behalf of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Insurance Status and Its Consequences
• Karen Davis, Ph.D., President, The Commonwealth Fund, New York, New York
• John M. Pickering, FSA, MAAA, Principal , Consulting Actuary, Milliman, Inc, Seattle, Washington

10 am – Senate Budget – room SD-608
Hearings to examine the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2009 for the Department of Energy.

Witness:

• The Honorable Steven Chu, Secretary, Department of Energy

10 am – Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs – room SD-342
Hearings to examine violent Islamist extremism, focusing on al-Shabaab recruitment in American.

10 am – Senate Judiciary and House Judiciary – room SH-216
Senate Subcommittee on Constitution
House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Joint hearings with the to examine S.J.Res.7 and H.J.Res.21, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to the election of Senators.

10 am – Senate Rules and Administration – room SR-301
Hearings to examine voter registration, focusing on assessing current problems.

10 am House Transportation and Infrastructure
Overview of Coast Guard Drug and Migrant Interdiction

10 am – House Transportation and Infrastructure
Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee
EDA Reauthorization: Rating Past Performances and Setting Goals During an Economic Crisis

10:30 am – Joint Economic Committee – room SD-106
TARP Accountability and Oversight: Achieving Transparency

Witnesses:

• Damon Silvers, Associate General Counsel for the AFL-CIO and Deputy Chair, Congressional Oversight Panel for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
• Richard Neiman, Superintendent of Banks, NY State Banking Department and Member, Congressional Oversight Panel for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
• Nicole Tichon, Tax and Budget Advocate, USPIRG

10:30 am – House Budget
On the views of members of Congress to the proposed FY 2010 budget.

1 pm – House Appropriations
Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee
On innovative prisoner reentry programs.

1 pm – House Small Business
Markup of the report to the FY 2010 budget views and estimates.

1:30 pm – House Appropriations
Defense Subcommittee
On Army and Marine Corps readiness.

Witnesses:

• Peter Charelli, Vice Chief of Staff, Army
• James Amos, Assistant Commandant, Marine Corps.

2 pm – House Homeland Security
Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee
On investigating the groups involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the threats they pose to the U.S., ways to protect domestic, critical infrastructure from attacks, and the support and involvement of the Department of Homeland Security to improve private sector security.

2 pm – House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law
Hearing on: Circuit City Unplugged: Why Did Chapter 11 Fail to Save 34,000 Jobs?

2:30 pm – House Financial Services
Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee
On a comprehensive view of the American mortgage system.

Witnesses:
Panel 1

• Ms. Sandra F. Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• Mr. Steven L. Antonakes, Commissioner, Massachusetts Division of Banks, on behalf of Conference of State Bank Supervisors

Panel 2

• Mr. David Berenbaum, Executive Vice President, National Community Reinvestment Coalition
• Ms. Julia Gordon, Senior Policy Counsel, Center for Responsible Lending
• Ms. Margot Saunders, Counsel, National Consumer Law Center
• Ms. Stephanie Jones, Executive Director, National Urban League Policy Institute
• Ms. Graciela Aponte, Analyst, National Council of La Raza

Panel 3

• Mr. Michael Middleton, President and CEO, Community Bank of Tri-County, on behalf of the American Bankers Association
• Mr. David G. Kittle, Chairman, Mortgage Bankers Association
• Mr. Marc S. Savitt, President, National Association of Mortgage Brokers
• Mr. Charles McMillan, President, National Association of Realtors
• Mr. Jim Amorin, President, Appraisal Institute
• Mr. Joe J. Robson, Chairman of the Board, National Association of Home Builders
• Mr. Laurence E. Platt, Partner, K&L Gates, on behalf of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
• Mr. Donald C. Lampe, Partner, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC

3 pm – House Appropriations
Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee
On innovative prisoner reentry programs.

Witness:

• Jennie Amison, Director, Gemeinschaft Home.

3:30 pm – House Armed Services
Terrorism, Unconventional Threats, and Capabilities Subcommittee
On tracking and disrupting terrorist financial networks.

Witnesses
Panel 1:

• Dr. Matthew Levitt, Director, Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, The Washington Institute of Near East Policy

Panel 2:

• Mr. Edward Frothingham III, Principal Director for Transnational Threats, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics Counterproliferation, and Global Threats.
• Lieutenant General David P. Fridovich, USA, Commander, Center for Special Operations, U. S. Special Operations Command

3:30 pm – House Rules
On H.R. 1262 – Water Quality Investment Act.

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