HHS nominee Burwell gets Senate hot seat
Burwell is poised to replace current HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Despite HHS Secretary nominee Sylvia M. Burwell getting asked some hard-line questions from several Republican lawmakers at a Senate committee hearing Thursday morning, she did appear to receive an overwhelming bipartisan support.
Burwell is poised to replace current HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who announced in April she would resign following the HealthCare.gov website debacle.
Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., offered nothing but "highest praise for her work" as deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, the role which Burwell currently holds.
McCain admitted he recommended Burwell turn down the HHS nomination due to the position being among the "most thankless jobs" in Washington. "Who would recommend their friend take over as captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg," he joked.
Despite this, McCain extended his full support of her nomination. "Regardless of my objections to the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services needs competent leadership in the position of secretary…I believe Ms. Burwell has the qualifications," he added.
Burwell, originally from small-town Hinton, W.V., has previously served as president of the Walmart Foundation, where she helped bring in $1.3 billion in charitable donations. Prior to this post, she served as head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Development Program.
She received her Bachelor's Degree in government from Harvard in 1987 and a degree from Oxford University, where she was awarded a Rhodes scholarship.
"She's grounded," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., describing Burwell, a product of her upbringing in rural West Virginia, with a first-generation Greek immigrant father, and mother who served as town mayor. "We're here to get the most responsible, the most talented person who can lead us," Manchin said at the hearing. And Burwell is the individual "who can get that train in the right direction."
Despite the lighter mood at the onset of the hearing, there were tough questions for the nominee.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., for example, interrogated Burwell regarding whether or not she would allow Americans to keep their healthcare plans they had if she were officially nominated.
Burwell skirted the inquiry with an indirect response, which prompted Alexander to interrupt: "Is that a no or a yes?"
"I think we want to see what is happening with regard to implementation," answered Burwell, who described this present time as a "transition period" as the nation moves forward with the ACA.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who has worked with Burwell in her OMB capacity as the Senate Appropriations Committee, called Burwell a "straight shooter," adding, "we didn't always like the answers, but we got answers."
"We need a CEO," added Mikulski, someone who will bring executive skills to this job, which manages some 80,000 people. As of lately, federal employees have been faced with a "money, management and morale" problem. What executive abilities will you bring to the office, she asked.
"Could you tell me the executive ability and experience you think you bring to this job that can help put this arms around this huge bureaucracy, often siloed, often fragmented?"
The first part involves defining goals and responsibilities, answered Burwell, and a portion of that is a listening process, and the other part includes analytics and data.
Next, it's integral to "thinking through when you need to drive with analytics and when you need to understand that there's emotion," added Burwell.
Thursday's Senate hearing is the first of two confirmation hearings.
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