Federal agencies are working in response to the coronaVirus Outbreak. Ken cuccinelli is acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, and dr. Robert kadlec is assistant health and Human Services secretary. They testified before a senate committee. Topics included supply chain management, sick pay support, and travel issues, specifically, how the coast guard is working with cruise lines. This is just over two hours. Good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to thank the witnesses first and foremost for your efforts as theyre related to the current, i guess weve got to call it a pandemic at this point in time, right . With covid19, the coronavirus. I guess its important to put things in perspective and i ask to submit my Opening Statement to the record. But i think we oftentimes fail to recognize and put this in proper perspective, so let me just rattle off a couple figures here. Ebola. Total cases worldwide ended up being less than 29,000. Now, i remember in the midst of that c
Test. Test. Test. Test. Lets look at the americas. Were fragmented. Were splintered. Aside from nafta, theres, you name it. The pacific alliance. A lot of different things. But there isnt one americas. The crown jewel we do have is nafta. And i hope we also think about the role that our region plays as we are competing with other regions in the world. Hemisphere, go to asia. That is a reality. And it becomes an economic reality and a National Security reality. And a massive shift of wealth from the east to the west. If we could get our act together regionally and build Energy Supply chains. We have the oil. We have the gas. And this is the time when we can be doing that. And the seventh largest economy in the world. The seventh largest economy in the world. Our southern neighbor and canada will always be one of the most developed per capita income economies anywhere. The world has changed in 23 years. So the labor chapter, the environmental chapter. Look at rules of origin and think ab
The committee will come to order. Id like to welcome everyone to the this mornings hearing. Today we consider the nomination of sima vermia to serve as administrator for the centers for medicaid and mediCare Services. Welcome. Were so happy to have you here and your family as well. I appreciate your willingness to lead this key agency at this critical time. And i see that your family joined you here today to lend support, so i extend a warm welcome to all of you and to them as well. Cms is the Worlds Largest health insurer. Covering over one third of the u. S. Population through medicare and medicaid alone. It has a budget of over 1 trillion and it processes over 1. 2 billion claims a year for Services Provided to some of our nations most vulnerable citizens. Having dealt with cms extensively in your capacity as a consultant to numerous state and Medicaid Programs, you know full well the challenges the agency deals with on a daily basis. I suspect you also know that the job youve been
And sima verma is founder and ceo of a Health Consulting firm and worked with mike pence revamping medicaid in indiana. Outside trump tower in new york city is phil mattingly. What more can you tell us about the latest cabinet picks . Why were they chosen . Reporter wolf, look at importance as they we are tain to policies and agendas of the president elect. These thee fill in nicely with key issues the president elect made promises ob througho s thr campaign. House republican leading the way on an alternative, tom price. He sundaunderstands the policy. Talk with republicans on capitol hill, why they like the pick and oh fu obtrusive with praise, necessary to grasp, repealing the Affordable Care act and figary w finish figure a way to reteal, and same for elaine chao. And what the president talked about throughout the campaign a large infrastructure proposal. Elaine chao will run point on in a, having somebody of her kaw calib caliber understanding how the federal Government Works and c