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Jurisdiction: Interstate and foreign commerce generally, including general trade matters within the jurisdiction of the full Committee; consumer protection in general; consumer product safety (the CPSC); product liability and insurance.

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Jurisdiction: Interstate and foreign telecommunications including, but not limited to, all telecommunication and information transmission by broadcast, radio, wire, microwave, satellite.

or other mode; securities and finance.

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19

RICK BOUCHER, Virginia

JIM COOPER, Tennessee 1

JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan

(Ex Officio)

BOB WHITTAKER, Kansas
THOMAS J. TAUKE, Iowa
MICHAEL BILIRAKIS, Florida
DAN SCHAEFER, Colorado
SONNY CALLAHAN, Alabama
NORMAN F. LENT, New York
(Ex Officio)

LAWRENCE SABBATH, Staff Director

Jurisdiction: Railroads, railroad retirement, and railway labor; regulation of travel and tourism; the regulation of commercial practices (the FTC); all matters pertaining to inland phur waterways; solid waste, hazardous waste, and toxic substances; noise pollution control; time; motor vehicle safety.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS

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Jurisdiction: Responsibility for oversight of agencies, departments, and all programs within the jurisdiction of the full Committee, and for conducting such investigations within such jurisdiction.

1 Appointed to the Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Hazardous Materials on April 28, 1987, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of John Bryant on April 10, 1987.

2 Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., Virginia, appointed Ranking Minority Member to replace Norman F. Lent, New York, who vacated Ranking Minority Member position on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on July 9, 1987.

LEGISLATIVE AND OVERSIGHT ACTIVITY OF THE
COMMITTEE

The 100th Congress will be considered by historians as one of the most active and energetic in recent times.

In the first session of the 100th Congress, the Committee on Energy and Commerce was faced with a wide variety of new legislative and oversight issues and carried forward work on a number of issues from the 99th Congress.

During 1987, 626 bills were referred to the Committee; 41 bills, one Committee Resolution, and three Committee Prints were considered by the full Committee. Of these, 39 measures were reported to the House. Twenty-two measures passed the House and were pending in the Senate at the close of the first session. The Committee was involved in conferences on three bills: H.R. 3, the "Trade and International Economic Policy Reform Act of 1987", H.R. 2470, the "Medicare Catastrophic Protection Act of 1987", and S. 677/ H.R. 2897, the "Federal Trade Commission Act Amendments of 1987". Seventeen bills concerning matters within the Committee's jurisdiction were signed into law during the first session; one measure to codify the Fairness Doctrine was vetoed.

By the close of the second session in October, 1988, 981 bills had been referred to the Committee, approximately one out of every six bills introduced in the House of Representatives during the 100th Congress. The Committee reported a total of 100 bills to the House, more than 10 percent of its legislation. A total of 72 measures concerning issues within the Committee's jursidiction were enacted into law, while a total of five bills were vetoed.

Trade and finance matters continued to require much of the Committee's attention. During the first session, the opening of the conference on the omnibus trade bill represented the culmination of more than three years of Committee work; in the second session (August, 1988), an omnibus trade bill was signed into law.

In finance, the Committee continued its oversight of the financial market and worked to develop new ways to protect investors from a variety of abuses. Legislation was crafted to strengthen laws regarding "insider trading" and it was enacted into law in November, 1988. Efforts to make changes to the way the banking industry conducts business-and to redefine the kind of business it could conduct-gathered momentum in 1988. The Committee focused considerable time and attention on this issue in order to arrive at a consensus that would be healthy for both the industry and the individual. The Committee reported H.R. 5094, the legislative vehicle for these changes at the end of September, 1988. Unfortunately, the time remaining in the 100th Congress proved inadequate to resolve the very complex matters involved in this issue.

The Committee's accomplishments in the field of health represent a very substantial achievement. By the close of the 100th Con

gress, the Committee reported 38 bills concerning a wide range of health issues. Of the 72 laws enacted during the 100th Congress pertaining to issues within the Committee's jurisdiction, 28 concern health matters. In the first session alone, the Committee reported 18 bills dealing with issues ranging from a program to provide medicare recipients with protection for catastrophic illness, nursing home reform and provision of health care for the homeless to orphan drug legislation and the creation of a National Commission on AIDS. During the second session, the Committee reported 20 bills dealing with health issues ranging from clinical laboratory standards to AIDS research and Indian health. In addition, the Committee made a significant contribution to one of the major pieces of legislation to emerge from the 100th Congress, the Omnibus Anti-Substance Abuse Act of 1988, enacted into law in November, 1988.

The Committee lived up to its reputation for confronting difficult issues squarely during lengthy consideration of legislation on two major consumer issues, product liability and the reauthorization of the consumer product safety commission. The Committee reported legislation in both areas.

During the first session, the Committee acted on a range of pressing environmental issues including a resolution promoting the protection of the ozone layer, action to deal with the threat of asbestos in public schools and reported a measure to promote the use of alternative motor fuels. The second session included action on solid waste, nuclear waste, and medical waste.

Energy matters continue to be a top priority with the Committee. Of the 72 public laws enacted which deal with Committee issues, 17 laws concern energy issues.

In the first session, during consideration of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (P.L. 100-203), the Committee reported legislation affecting Medicare, Medicaid, vaccine compensation, and energy issues that, taken together, provided deficit reduction of $9.311 billion over three years. This brought to a total of more than $62.5 billion the savings recommended by the Committee since 1981-some $4.3 billion more than the Committee was instructed to save by the various budget resolutions passed during that period. The record of the Committee on Energy and Commerce for the 100th Congress stands second to none. It worked diligently, thoughtfully, and determinedly to produce new laws and amendments to existing law that would meet-perhaps even anticipatethe needs of our society today and tomorrow.

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