Opening Statement of Sen. Chuck Grassley
Nomination Hearing of Jim Esquea, Bryan Samuels and Ellen Murray
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Finance Committee is considering three nominations today, all for positions in the Department of Health and Human Services. I first want to congratulate all of you on your nominations and thank you for your willingness to serve your country. The Department of Health and Human Services and its operating divisions serve many vital functions to promote the health and well being of all Americans. The ability for Congress and HHS to work together for the best possible outcomes is important. This leads me to the first nomination I would like to talk about-- Mr. Jim Esquea to be Assistant Secretary for Legislation. Mr. Esquea, the position you have been nominated for, Assistant Secretary for Legislation, is especially important to me. You will be our primary contact at the Department of Health and Human Services as we work in the Senate to write good policy and fulfill our oversight responsibilities. It is good that you will be bringing your experience working for Congress to the position. For the last ten years you have served on the staff of the Budget Committee, a committee I am proud to serve on. In that position, you were always responsive to my questions and concerns and I trust that you will do the same in your new position. My staff also speaks very highly of you so I ask that you maintain those qualities in your new position. You probably already know that I take my oversight responsibilities seriously. Whether it is a Republican or Democratic administration doesn’t matter. I conduct vigorous oversight because the public’s business should be public. Sometimes I have trouble getting responses to my letters and sometimes I have trouble getting accurate answers. Mr. Esquea , you have been nominated to be the first person I will call looking for answers. I am confident that if you are as responsive and thorough as you have been on the Budget Committee, there won’t be too many angry phone calls from me to you.
I turn now to Mr. Bryan Samuels who has been nominated to be Commissioner for Administration of Children, Youth and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Samuels, congratulations on your nomination for this important position. If confirmed, you will oversee programs that are critical to protecting and ensuring the well being of some our nation’s most vulnerable children. If confirmed, you will be tasked with implementing one of the most far-reaching child welfare bills to be enacted in over a decade, the bipartisan “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.” This law promotes adoption, provides states with an option to allow children to reside permanently with a relative, extends federal payments for youth in foster care up to age 21 and allows qualified tribes to administer their own child welfare programs. The implementation of this bill, as well as continued implementation of the “Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006,” which reauthorized and improved the “Promoting Safe and Stable Families Act” will be challenging. States are struggling with fiscal problems and may not take up a number of options to improve child welfare that these laws permit. That is disheartening to me. If you are confirmed, I look forward to working with you on strategies to encourage states to exercise options that are currently available to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system. Additionally, if you are confirmed, I look forward to working with you to address issues related to both child welfare programs and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF programs. Congress will need to reauthorize TANF next year and I intend to use that exercise to focus on child-only TANF cases. It may be that a number of children in child-only TANF cases may be better served by placement in foster care, relative care or by receiving services through child welfare programs. I am hopeful that, if confirmed, you will advance a positive agenda for children and youth.
Next, we have Ellen Murray, nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Resources and Technology at HHS. Congratulations, Ms. Murray, and thank you for answering the call to serve. As an Iowan, I must thank Ms. Murray for her longtime service to my home state. For the past 10 years, Ms. Murray served as Staff Director for the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for a fellow Iowan and friend, Senator Tom Harkin. In addition to serving Iowans, you have gained knowledge and experience that I believe will serve you well for the position you have been nominated for. We are at a point in our history where we face serious challenges with health care. You have all answered the President’s call. And I want to express again that if you are confirmed, I look forward to working with you to meet these challenges.
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