During Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) spoke about his priorities for the Department of Health and Human Services.
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00:00Thank you. Senator Grassley. I'm not going to ask questions. I'm going to list some of my
00:06priorities for the Department of HHS. When I'm done, I'm going to save some time for you to
00:12respond if you want to respond of agreement or disagreement. My first point is something that
00:19Senator Crapo ended with. A key responsibility of each member of Congress is oversight.
00:25Oversight allows us to hold bureaucrats accountable to the rule of law and helps keep faith with
00:32taxpayers. I expect HHS to provide timely and complete responses to congressional oversight.
00:41Secondly, dealing with pharmacy benefit managers. Since 2018, I've been working to hold pharmacy
00:48benefit managers accountable in order to lower prescription drug costs. I expect HHS to work
00:55with Congress to do the same thing, accountability, hopefully even support legislation that I hope
01:03comes out of this committee later on, like it did last year. On rural health care, I expect
01:09prioritizing of health care needs for rural Americans, including support for rural hospitals,
01:16clinics, rural pharmacies, rural health care workforce, and improving maternal and child health
01:23care. Organ transplant system reform. In a bipartisan way, we need confidence that our organ transplant system
01:35is efficient and fair. I would like to see HHS fully implement the bill U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplant Network
01:47law and do it properly. This law improves the management of our organ transplant system and establishes some competition.
01:59The fifth one would be qualified foster families. Across the United States, there's a shortage of such families and retention challenges among families that do open their homes to children in foster care.
02:15Senator Hassan and I have introduced a bill that is entitled Recruiting Families Using Data Act to help address this and avoid unacceptable temporary placements of children in settings such as office spaces, hotels, and the like.
02:35I expect HHS to help states address the challenge of recruitment and retention among foster families so that children aren't placed in unacceptable settings.
02:49And lastly, improving outcomes for older youth aging out of foster care. In January, the Government Accountability Office published a report to understand how states are using funding from the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for successful transition to adulthood.
03:13That's a long name of program that we have in place. I requested this report after I became aware that some funding was going unused and being returned. I expect HHS to work with me to build on the successes of programs like Chafee to ensure that our resources provide provided are used to effectively support older children.
03:41and their transition to adulthood. You have one minute and 17 seconds if you want to respond.
03:48Thank you, Senator. If I could say, when I worked at HHS during the Bush administration, I vividly remember you were always a very consistent voice on congressional oversight of HHS and the whole government. I thank you for that. I think that is an appropriate focus.
03:57And I look forward to working with you to make sure that all members of Congress and their staffs get prompt and consistent and accurate information about the department. I'm sure Gary would agree with that.
04:04On foster care. The administration for children and families, as you said, has a deep responsibility to ensure that state and other programs related to foster care are
04:11ensuring that all foster children have access to good loving families and that is a priority for the children and that is a priority for the children and the families.
04:18I look forward to working with you to make sure that all members of Congress and their staffs get prompt and consistent and accurate information about the department. I'm sure Gary would agree with that.
04:21On foster care. The administration for children and families, as you said, has a deep responsibility to ensure that state and other programs related to foster care are ensuring that all foster children have access to good loving families.
04:41That's a great priority for me and I look forward to working with them.
04:48Senator Grassley, thank you for stating those priorities. I know those are consistent with when I met with your staff and they emphasize all those things as well. So appreciate you reiterating them.
05:00I do know you have a long history of interest in oversight. I look forward to working with you on that. I know that there's bipartisan interest on PBM reform.
05:10I look forward to working with you on that. And I know from speaking with a lot of the other members of this committee that rural health is a priority for you as well as others. So look forward to working with you on all those things.
05:25Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
05:28Thank you, thank you.