Washington, D.C. – The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee will hold a full committee hearing, two subcommittee hearings and a business meeting this week. The full committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, May 18, at 10:00 a.m. in SD-366 to receive testimony regarding Department of Energy contracting with small businesses. The purpose of this hearing is to evaluate implications of a 1999 change in reporting of small business contracts by the Department of Energy. The 1999 change had the effect of increasing the number of small business contracts issued directly by the Department and decreasing the number of contracts issued by the Department’s facility management contractors. DOE, which had been allowed to count small business contract awards made by facility managers toward their small business prime contracting goal, was then required reverse course so that more small business contracts could be placed directly by the Department. To meet future small business contracting targets, the Department will have to break out elements of their large facility management contracts into smaller contracts in order to award them to small businesses. Invited Witnesses Include: Panel I: The Honorable Kyle McSlarrow Deputy Secretary Department of Energy Panel II: Robin Nazzaro Director Natural Resources & Environment U.S. General Accounting Office Dr. Joan Woodard Deputy Director Sandia National Laboratories Ann Sullivan Federal Legislative Consultant Women Impacting Public Policy Councilmember Robert Thompson Energy Communities Alliance Chairman City of Richland, WA The full committee will hold a business meeting on Wednesday, May 19, at 11:30 a.m. in SD-366to consider the following bills: S. 155 - A bill to convey to the town of Frannie, Wyoming, certain land withdrawn by the Commissioner of Reclamation. S. 180 - A bill to establish the National Aviation Heritage Area, and for other purposes. S. 203 - A bill to open certain withdrawn land in Big Horn County, Wyoming, to locatable mineral development for bentonite mining. S. 211 - A bill to establish the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes. S. 323 - A bill to establish the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, Louisiana. S. 1241 - A bill to establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in the State of New York, and for other purposes. S. 1467 - A bill to establish the Rio Grande Outstanding Natural Area in the State of Colorado, and for other purposes. S. 1521 - A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain land to the Edward H. McDaniel American Legion Post No. 22 in Pahrump, Nevada, for the construction of a post building and memorial park for use by the American Legion, other veterans' groups, and the local community. S. 1727 - A bill to authorize additional appropriations for the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978. S. 2046 - A bill to authorize the exchange of certain land in Everglades National Park. S. 2052 - A bill to amend the National Trails System Act to designate El Camino Real de los Tejas as a National Historic Trail. S. 2180 - A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to exchange certain lands in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in the State of Colorado. S. 2319 - A bill to authorize and facilitate hydroelectric power licensing of the Tapoco Project. H.R. 961 - To promote Department of the Interior efforts to provide a scientific basis for the management of sediment and nutrient loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, and for other purposes. H.R. 1446 - To support the efforts of the California Missions Foundation to restore and repair the Spanish colonial and mission-era missions in the State of California and to preserve the artworks and artifacts of these missions, and for other purposes. H.R. 1658 - To amend the Railroad Right-of-Way Conveyance Validation Act to validate additional conveyances of certain lands in the State of California that form part of the right-of-way granted by the United States to facilitate the construction of the transcontinental railway, and for other purposes. The Water and Power Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, May 19, at 2:30 p.m. in SD-366 to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 900, a bill 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, a bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain lands and facilities of the Provo River Project; S. 1957, a bill 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, and for other purposes; 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, a bill to extend the deadline for commencement of construction of a hydroelectric project in the State of Alaska; H.R. 1648, a bill 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, a bill 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. Invited Witnesses Include: Panel I: The Honorable John Keys Commissioner Bureau of Reclamation United States Department of the Interior The Honorable Charles G. Groat Director U.S. Geological Survey United States Department of the Interior Panel II: Jerry Nypen Manager Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project Sidney, Montana Thomas Graves Executive Director Mid-West Electric Consumers Association Wheat Ridge, CO C. Allen Jones Director Texas Water Resources Institute College Station, Texas John D’Antonio State Engineer New Mexico Office of the State Engineer Santa Fe, New Mexico John Robert Carman General Manager Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy Sandy, Utah The National Parks Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Thursday, May 20, at 2:30 p.m. in SD-366 to receive testimony on the following bills: S. 1672, to expand the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, Florida; S. 1789 and H.R. 1616, to authorize the exchange of certain lands within the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site for lands owned by the City of Atlanta, Georgia, and for other purposes; S. 1808, to provide for the preservation and restoration of historic buildings at historically women's public colleges or universities; S. 2167, to establish the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in the States of Washington and Oregon, and for other purposes; and S. 2173, to further the purposes of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Establishment Act of 2000. Invited Witnesses Include: Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) Panel I: Mr. Paul Hoffman Deputy Assistant Secretary Fish and Wildlife and Parks Department of the Interior Mr. Armand Carriere Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for University Partnerships Department of Housing and Urban Development Panel 2 Mr. Steve Brady Co-Chairman Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site Project Lame Deer, Montana Dr. Robert McChesney President University of Montevallo Montevallo, Alabama Carol J. Alexander Executive Director Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum Jacksonville, Florida Rex Ziak Lewis & Clark Author and Historian Naselle, Washington