Committee InfoDescriptionThe Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology was created during the 14th Congress in 1816, originally named “Commerce and Manufactures”. At that time there were only 11 five-member committees. Earlier, the committee was mainly involved in organizing and creating statistical reports and carrying out investigations. These included areas of foreign trade, construction of canals, and shipping regulation. It wasn’t until 1977 that the committee was given the name it uses today. The committee has jurisdiction over 19 different areas. These include the coast guard, highway safety, weather, standards and measurements, and regulation of consumer products. There are currently 25 members in the committee, 11 republicans and 14 democrats. Senator Jay Rockefeller is the chairman of the committee. His duties have included protecting consumers, heightening security, improving the economy, and building technology and infrastructure. He is also a big advocate of healthcare reform.The Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee is responsible for several aspects of legislature. The commerce legislation that the committee administers is about regulation of consumer products, communications, and interstate commerce. With regards to transportation the committee oversees highway safety, marine and ocean navigation and safety, the Panama Canal and most other intercontinental waterways as well as inland waterways, interstate common carriers (trains, buses, trucks, etc.). The committee’s jurisdiction about science includes non-military aeronautical and space sciences; all standards and measurement; research about science, engineering, and technology; oceans, weather and atmospheric activities. There are also a few topics that the committee oversees, but do not necessarily fit into a specific category of the committee; these include sports, the coast guard, and coastal zone management. There is a lot of activity going on currently within the fields of commerce, science, and transportation today in the United States that concerns our committee. The Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is currently holding hearings regarding aviation safety (which has been a very popular topic following the events that occurred on 9/11), transportation security (also related to 9/11), and Job creation. The Committee has already passed numerous pieces of legislation regarding many different topics. They vary from subjects such as littering prevention (The Cigarette litter Prevention Act of 2007), which administered the requirements of littering prevention statements on cigarette packages, to gender bias elimination (The Gender Bias Elimination Act of 2007), which authorized workshops to eliminate biases against women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic fields. If you are still interested in learning more about the House Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, view their website http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=About.Members. -------------------- Hi! My name is Elizabeth Rubenfield and I’ll be one of your co-chairs for the White Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology committee. I’m a freshman at Penn majoring in Systems Engineering. I have participated in Model Congress throughout high school at Penn as well as Yale. I attended Framingham High School in Framingham, MA. Other than Model Congress, I am also involved with club lacrosse and Ski/Snowboard teams and Society of Women Engineers. If you have any questions or need help with your bill feel free to contact me at eruben@seas.upenn.edu. See you in February! Hey my name is Briana Costello. I am a sophomore in the School of Nursing. I've been doing Model Congress since my sophomore year of high school. This is my second year as a chair. Outside of school I work as an athletic trainer, spending most of my time there working with the football team. I have also been involved in SPEC-TRUM, a student event-planning committee. If you have any questions about either Model Congress or Penn in general my email is brianac@nursing.upenn.edu. See you all in February! Chairs
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Account LoginConference DatesMarch 31 - April 3, 2011 RegistrationRegistration is now closed. InformationClick here for more details about PENNMC 2011! Check us out on Facebook!
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