The Week Ahead (Sept 17-21)
September 14, 2007
12:07 PM
On Thursday, Sept. 20, the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests will hear testimony on S. 1377, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey to the City of Henderson, Nev., certain Federal land located in the city; S. 1433, to amend the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to provide competitive status to certain Federal employees in Alaska; S. 1608 and H.R. 815, to convey certain land in Clark County, Nev., for use by the Nevada National Guard; S. 1740, to amend the Act of February 22, 1889, and Act of July 2, 1862, to provide for the management of public land trust funds in North Dakota; S. 1802, to adjust the boundaries of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho; S. 1939, to convey certain land in the Santa Fe National Forest, N.M.; S. 1940, to reauthorize the Rio Puerco Watershed Management Program in New Mexico; S. 1143, to designate the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and surrounding Federal land in Florida as an Outstanding Natural Area and a unit of the National Landscape System; and S. 2034, to amend the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984 to designate the Copper Salmon Wilderness and segments of the North and South Forks of the Elk River in Oregon as wild or scenic rivers. Witnesses are Joel Holtrop, deputy chief, U.S. Forest Service; Michael Nedd, asst. director of Minerals, Realty and Resources Protection, Bureau of Land Management; Mayor Jim Auborn, Port Orford, Ore.; and Jim Rogers, Friends of Elk River, Port Orford. (Dirksen 366, 2:30 pm)
Weekly Bonus …
Occasionally, the House and Senate meet in special session to hear a speech by a visiting foreign leader. Even rarer are the times when the president of an independent nation addresses an individual committee.
This month, Senate ENR will host two heads of states.
On Sept. 25, our committee will welcome President Kessai Note of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for a hearing on S. 1756, a bill to provide additional compensation to the Republic for impacts of the U.S. nuclear testing program. The president will also update the committee on the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Marshall Islands. The Marshalls are part of Micronesia in the western Pacific, some 2,300 miles west of Honolulu.
On Sept. 26, the president of the Republic of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, will favor the committee with testimony on S. 1543, a bill to encourage increased production of energy from geothermal resources. Iceland has gone further than any other country in utilizing its vast sources of renewable energy, including the abundant geothermal water supplies which underlie the island nation. Virtually all of Iceland’s electricity and heating comes from renewable energy.
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