The House Administration Committee on Wednesday will hold the first in a series of hearings on the implementation of the Help America Vote Act and more general election issues.

The committee will hear from two panels. The first is scheduled to include members of the Election Assistance Commission, which was created by HAVA in 2003. The second will consist of four state secretaries of State, two Democrats and two Republicans. [IMGCAP(1)]

The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in Room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building.

Historic Speech. Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) will give the keynote address for the Library of Congress’ celebration of Black History Month.

Watt, who became chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus earlier this year, will speak Feb. 15. The event will begin at 10 a.m. in the James Madison Building’s Mumford Room.

Western Front. The Western Caucus has elected Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and John Doolittle (R-Calif.) to leadership positions for the 109th Congress.

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) was unanimously re-elected as chairman of the caucus.

Established in 1992, the Western Caucus focuses on improving the quality of life in rural areas through policies that promote limited government and economic opportunity.

New Caucus. In an effort to promote innovative and practical new methods of training for the military, GOP Reps. Randy Forbes (Va.), Ken Calvert (Calif.), Thelma Drake (Va.), Tom Feeney (Fla.) and Ric Keller (Fla.) have formed the Congressional Modeling & Simulation Training Caucus.

The defense modeling and simulation industry provides readily available, operationally valid environments for training the military. Included in these new technologies are flight simulators, infantry training, command and control simulation, and tactical team training.

— Suzanne Nelson, Jennifer Yachnin, Amanda Arcuri and Sonny Bunch