Hearings this week. (Yes, they are back.)

[TayTay]

There are some really good hearings this week. None on Iraq or in Senate Foreign Relations though. Personally, I think they still are digesting the 7 weeks of hearings they just did on Iraq. In 7 weeks the Dems had more hearings on Iraq than the Repubs had in 6 years, I think. Change is good.

[TayTay]

1. Senate Finance Committee: Renewable Energy 2/27/07 10: 00 am

America’s Energy Future: Bold Ideas, Practical Solutions

February 27, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Member Statements:
Max Baucus, MT
Charles Grassley, IA

Witness Statements:

Governor Brian Schweitzer, D-MT

Michael A. Aimone, Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations and Mission Support, U.S. Air Force

Dan Arvizu, Ph.D., Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO

Robert Socolow, Ph.D., Co-Director, The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Dan Reicher, J.D., Director, Energy and Climate Initiatives, Google Corp., Mountain View, CA

Oooh, this could be pure wonky goodness. I like Brian Schweitzer. He has some good ideas about practical ideas on renewables. And, I do think that the attending senators might ask some good questions.

[TayTay]

3. Just a kick for this hearing.

Renewal energy discussion in the Finance Committee. Gee, they deal with taxes and the tax structure. OMG, dare I think it? Would the US Congress try to create a tax incentive for renewables and, maybe, just maybe, stop giving breaks to Big Oil? (Okay, don't get your hopes up too high Tay. That guy is still Prez after all. But still, oh my!)

Watch it here: http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm

[TayTay]

2. Small Biz: Budget for 2008 Fiscal Year. 2/28/07 10 AM

To listen to this Hearing, please click here. (Audio Only) On that day click: http://sbc.senate.gov/20070228.cfm

Below is the participant for the hearing titled "The President's FY2008 Budget Request for the Small Business Administration."

The Honorable Steven C. Preston
Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration

So, why has this Administration cut the Budget for Small Business by 40% since 2001?

"Ah, Senator, that truth serum wasn't necessary. Ah, we cut the budget because, ahm, ah, er, we don't believe in Small Business. If God had wanted Small Business to succeed, He would have made them all subsidiaries of Halliburton. Small Business grants take money away from friends and contributors of the President. He hates it when that happens and throws nasty tantrums."

[TayTay]

4. SBA: 10 am. Budget stuff

Hey, seems I missed a hearing this week. How'd that go any way? (LOL!)

This one has the SBA head testifying about how much the Bushies and Repubs love small business. They love it so much they have steadily eroded the budget by 40% since 2001. Hey, what about that old saying that nothing says loving like a check?

[TayTay]

5. Starting now.

(I will have to leave during the hearing. Meetup Lunch! Yeah!)

OMG, they have upped the budget so that it is only 30% less than 2001. Wow! Sen. Kerry is talking about how hard it is for small biz firms to break in. There are 9 more procurement specialists, but that is after cuts. (For example 1 guy in Mass has the whole state and the 1.5 bil budget to work through.)

Disaster loans: Upped a bit. The money doesn't go to small biz, it goes to Administration.

Yeah, that the budget doesn't eliminate microloan project. But the budget wants to make the program self-funding. So money is sleight-of-hand shifted from one area of SBA to another. (This has to do with minority, women-owned businesses.

[TayTay]

6. 3/1 Commerce: Universal Service (Telecom) 10 AM

Okay, first off, what is this about?

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation designated as the administrator of the federal Universal Service Fund by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). USAC administers Universal Service Fund programs for high cost companies serving rural areas, low-income consumers, rural health care providers, and schools and libraries. The Universal Service Fund helps provide communities across the country with affordable telecommunications services.

As the administrator of the USF, USAC is the data collection agent for required FCC forms that report telecommunications revenue for contributors to the fund. FCC rules require all telecommunications carriers providing international and interstate telecommunications services, providers of interstate telecommunications that offer interstate telecommunications for a fee on a non-common carrier basis, and payphone providers that are aggregators to contribute to the Universal Service Fund.

The four USF programs are High Cost, Low Income, Rural Health Care, and Schools and Libraries.

http://www.usac.org/default.aspx

Okay, this semi-governmental agency, under the FCC is supposed to administer a program that brings the beneifts of the internet and of broadband communications to rural and hard-to-reach areas in the US. Yeah. ahm, there are opponents to this, of course, who argue that the free markets are the means to addressing all areas of service inequity and that if we leave the free markets alone, they will self-correct and stabilize services at a low price. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-310es.html

Hearing today is to figure out what is going on with this program.

Witnesses
Webcast: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=1819

Opening Remarks

Panel 1
Honorable Michael J. Copps
Commissioner
Federal Communications Commission

The Honorable Deborah Taylor Tate
Commissioner
Federal Communications Commission

Larry Landis
Commissioner
Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission

John Burke
Board Member
Vermont Public Service Board

Billy Jack Gregg
Director, Consumer Advocate Division,
Public Service Commission of West Virginia

Panel 2
David Crothers
Executive Vice President
North Dakota Association of Telecommunications Cooperatives

Brian Staihr
Director of Policy/Regulatory Economist
Embarq Corp.

Richard Massey
Executive Vice President, Corporate Secretary, General Counsel
Alltel Corp.

Mr. Tom Tauke
Executive Vice President
Verizon

W. Tom Simmons
Vice President of Public Policy
Midcontinent Communications

[TayTay]

7. Finance: 3/01 Medicare Payments 10 AM

Medicare Payment for Physician Services: Examining New Approaches

March 1 , 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Webcast: http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing030107.htm

Member Statements:
Max Baucus, MT
Charles Grassley, IA

Witness Statements:

Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD, Chairman, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Washington, DC

Peter R. Orszag, PhD, Director, Congressional Budget Office, Washington, DC

T. Bryon Thames, MD, Member, Board of Trustees, AARP, Orlando, FL

Cecil B. Wilson, MD, Chairman, Board of Trustees, American Medical Association, Winter Park, FL

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

The meat and potatoes of this committee, where is the money, how is it allocated and how can it be done more efficiently.