Maggie Hassan Asks HHS Nom Point Blank: 'Would You Follow The Law, Or The President's Directive?'

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During a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked President Trump's nominee to be Assistant Secretary for Health, Brian Christine about following the law.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank you and the ranking member for this hearing.

00:05Congratulations to all of the nominees for your nomination and to your families, too,

00:09because none of you come here without the backing and partnership of your families.

00:15I'm going to just start with a very simple question. We'll go right down the line.

00:20If directed by the president to take an action that would break the law,

00:24would you follow the law or follow the president's directive? Ms. Carey?

00:27I don't believe the administration would request me to break the law, but I would follow the law.

00:32Thank you, Dr. Christine.

00:33I don't believe that President Trump nor Secretary Kennedy would ever ask me to break the law.

00:39And if they did?

00:40I don't believe the president or the secretary would ever. It's inconceivable to me that that would...

00:45Well, then you are not paying attention, sir, and that's disqualifying.

00:48Ms. Penuccio?

00:50Senator, I don't believe that President Trump would ask me to violate the law, but I will always follow the law.

00:55I think you all should go back and review facts of the last several months, not to mention years,

01:01to figure out if the first part of your answer is correct, but let me move on to other questions.

01:07Dr. Christine, the assistant secretary for health oversees the Title X Family Planning Program,

01:13which funds life-saving cancer screenings for women.

01:16Do you agree that all women should have access to free cancer screening in their own community?

01:21So, Senator Hassan, number one, thank you for your time today.

01:24I wish that we would have had the opportunity to make...

01:27Sir, just yes or no, because my time is limited here.

01:29So the Title X funds, of course, as you know, federal funding and grants that go toward family planning...

01:35I'm going to stop you here again because my time is limited.

01:37Here was my question.

01:39Do you agree that all women should have access to free cancer screening in their own community, yes or no?

01:44Title X funds are incredibly important.

01:46Sir, should women have free access to cancer screening?

01:49And so we know that Title X funds should never be...

01:52All right, I'm going to...

01:53This is a disqualifying back and forth, sir.

01:56You're not willing to be frank.

01:58You're not willing to answer a yes or no question.

02:01President Trump is currently withholding funding from New Hampshire Family Planning Clinics

02:05that serve thousands of Granite Staters.

02:07We've heard from clinics in New Hampshire that are now considering plans to close their doors

02:12due to President Trump's actions.

02:14Will defunding Title X make it harder for women to get cancer screenings, yes or no?

02:19Senator Hassan, if I'm confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health

02:24and Human Services, I will make sure that Title X funds are used as they should be

02:28and never used for abortion services.

02:30So they aren't used for abortion services.

02:34Let's just be clear.

02:34Federal money is not used for abortion services.

02:36So I'm going to take your first refusal to answer as a no.

02:43You don't believe women should get free cancer screenings.

02:46And I'm going to take the second answer here as one that reflects your unwilling

02:51to make sure that Title X money is used to enable women to get the kind of cancer screenings

02:57that saves lives.

02:58Do you know how many cervical cancer screenings are funded by Title X each year?

03:03No, ma'am.

03:04I do not.

03:04More than $460,000.

03:07As Assistant Secretary, will you reverse any cuts to family planning funding to ensure

03:12that women can receive those $460,000 cervical cancer screenings?

03:16The decision to family plan, of course, is the individual's decision, and I support that.

03:20And I will ensure the Title X funds never go toward abortion services.

03:24You know, I'm just going to...

03:26Well, that's what you needed to say for President Trump and perhaps for Secretary Kennedy

03:30and for the other people who support this administration

03:32and oppose a woman's right to make her own health care decisions.

03:35I'm curious about cervical cancer screening.

03:38I happen to have a family member who died from cervical cancer.

03:41So this is very personal to me, and it should be personal to you as well.

03:45You spoke in your testimony about your concern about workforce shortages.

03:49You take away Title X funding from these family planning clinics that provide these cervical cancer

03:54screenings for 460,000 women.

03:57That's 460,000 people who now have to go find another provider to do that cervical cancer screening.

04:02And that is a real challenge and unlikely to happen without these Title X agencies in place.

04:09Ms. Carey, as general counsel of the NLRB, you would be responsible for ensuring that the agency

04:14has adequate field staff to investigate unfair labor practices and promptly process union election

04:21petitions.

04:21This past fall, the NLRB reported that its field offices received nearly 25,000 cases during

04:28the previous year, the highest total case intake in over a decade.

04:32Senator Houston asked about this, too.

04:35It confirmed, what will you do to ensure that the agency has the resources that it needs to

04:40protect workers' rights and enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act?

04:44Thank you for the question.

04:46My goal is to effectuate the mission of the Act and to ensure that the hardworking employees

04:51have all of the resources that they need, which includes access to training and all of the

04:56support that they need.

04:57One of the biggest things and one of the conversations that I've been having with those that I've had

05:01the ability to have conversations with, given my role right now, is that, you know, they

05:06need support and I think there are resources available throughout the agency that can help

05:10them with that backlog and provide some backup to them.

05:14Well, you know, what doesn't help is when an administration lays off people willy-nilly

05:19without measuring or doing analysis first.

05:21So I hope you will stand up for the work that needs to get done and make sure that you have

05:25adequate staffing who also are supported as you're describing.

05:29Mr. Chair, I don't have time to ask my last question, which I will submit for the record,

05:34because I do have real concerns about Ms. Carey's capacity to be an independent leader

05:39of the NLRB, particularly because of the circumstances of the firing of Ms. Wilcox.

05:45Last thing I will just note is that Ms. Carey's response on the issue of the constitutionality

05:51of the NLRB is very disappointing.

05:53Since in 1937, it was deemed to be constitutional.

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