hurting beneficiaries. we talked about those and those meetings. that could be part of the equation that will help us find a way to pay for the sgr and never have these one-year renewals again and again. i appreciate you leaving all of the options on the table for discussion. >> senator, >> senator, i welcome all opportunities and as is reflected in our budget, we have a wide range of opportunities, and the type you're talking about as well. all on the table. >> thank you. senator roberts. >> thank you, and -- mr. chairman. when we spoke during the senate health committee, i asked you questions about the independent payment advisory board, ipad is the acronym for it. thathat could happen if came into being and in your

response, you said that you were "hopeful that ipad never needs to be used and the necessity to do so would never be triggered." would you simply support its appeal? also important to reflect that ipad, as currently written, would not affect beneficiaries. that is an important part of the law with regard to how it is implemented. as regard to the appeal on the things thate of the is hopefully a hopeful thing is to helpthings in place us all get to where we need to with regard to reducing health care costs. >> may be barbed wire would be a better way to put it. i would echo my colleagues comments to you, regarding your responsiveness and willingness

to work with this committee and all members of congress. i would also like to add relevant medicare takeovers to that list. just this last week i had the kansas hospital association in my office sharing their frustration over the lack of responsiveness from hhs. this is the same letter that they said your predecessor in january. they have yet to receive a response regarding the medicare recovery audit contractors, what we lovingly call the rac. they don't want to be put on the rac. they are still awaiting a response. have returneds savings to the local trust fund. it is important that providers have timely access to the appeals of these audits. 65 lawtalking about

judges and now 350,000 claims, which i understand is the reason for the delay, or the suspension. it is rather incredible. we have gone from impending appeals in just two years of 900 -- 92,000 claims to 460,000 claims. when the weekly operation of about 1250 up to 15,000 per week. the reason is obvious, and that , hospitals win 70% of the time. which means these independent hospitalrs come into a and many times they have never seen them before. they are being find for regulations they know nothing about. and if you are in a small hospital, you have a problem they doing out whether you're going to appeal or not, and now we find that the appeals are suspended. i would add to my list -- what can be done to better balance the need to recover improper

unduets without imposing administrative burdens on providers? particularly those in our rural areas. >> senator, with regard to this issue of the rac's as well as the balancing of having hospitals be able to process things quickly, at the same time we are providing -- trying to prevent abuse of medicare, if i am confirmed, this is an issue i think will require a quick look, a fresh look, and to think about how we can get the balance and what processes can be used to balance the two interests. i think you are appropriately reflecting -- in terms of the speed and the processing, it is not where we want to be in terms of the system. perspectiveyear's rule, asystems role -- rule that you signed off on at omb, hhs payment clarification requires submitting a patient

into a critical access hospital and certified that the patient must be discharged or transferred within 96 hours. this payment clarification, which is not in line with the critical access hospitals condition for participation with medicare, in my view. and in their view, is crippling the ability of many of these communities to provide rural -- toommunities communities. one doctor said i usually met 12 minutes and now it is three minutes because of the 96 hour role. besthen they decide on the course of action for their care. it is another example, in my opinion, of having to tell cms that if it is not broken, there's no need to fix it. if confirmed, will you do all you can to see if we can reverse this payment issue, so that rural seniors can continue to receive care at their local community academics the issue of critical access hospitals and care in rural communities -- at local communities?

>> the issue of crigler access hospitals and care in rural communities is something that we need to get the right intent on. in terms of how to get to the place where the original objectives of the rules and be achieved in the way that they do not have the unintended consequences that you are articulating. >> thank you. my time has expired. >> senator warner. >> let me thank you again for your service. looks like you're coming around the bend and close to being done. i have a number of things i want to get on the record. first, i want to add my voice to the comments made by senator isaacson and senator roberts. i think the displacement of agents and brokers with a challenge and a mistake and i hope you will review that process. let me also add my voice to what senator roberts said. i hear repeatedly from rural rac audits.bout the e

we do need to make sure that we get rid of waste and fraud, but we want to look at that. moving on, one, the treasury department recently finalized the employer rules dealing with individual mandate. there's a lot of complexity about these rules and some of these complex -- complexities were highlighted by the american bar association. this is not just a treasury-ir wretcs issue. are implementles it, -- i have raised this with you before. i introduced legislation with eight cosponsors that is endorsed by a number of employee and employer groups, which would basically allow employers to respectively rather than have a one-month -- once per month reporting.

upfront require an collaboration between hhs and treasury that might remove one of the administered to burdens that we here in enormous amounts about around aca. my hope is if you are approved, and i hope you will be, that you will help work with us on it of this legislation or other ways we can improve this reporting requirement, and again, with this perspective action rather than just doing it retroactively. >> if i am confirmed, the it ministration and the president has said that we welcome the opportunity to think about things he can do legislatively and otherwise to improve it. >> i will take that as a yes. it is my understanding that there were agreements with the number of web-based entities to allow private exchanges to enroll tax subsidy individuals pursuant to regulations issued by hhs in march, 2012. again, something we talked about. this effort was stymied due to in -- insufficient technology

integrations. i understand there have been some small steps taken by hhs, but not a lot has taken place. to my mind, this should be a no-brainer. if we can get some of the sites, perhaps more user-friendly as an additive to help that, i hope you will work with me and these web-based entities to make sure that there is better technology integration this area. >> i welcome the opportunity to think about the best way to do distribution. and harkening back to senator isaacson's russian and your comment, the dissolution mechanism in terms of how people can easily access and receive health care. >> and clearly, there may have been sites that were private sector sites that had a better reputation than the federal exchange. if we can find ways to utilize that and integrate that technology, to me, it seems like we want to expand that.

i hope we can work together on this. again, an issue that i raise you, au -- raised with little more, kitty, about cms changes recently in the hospice benefit. i think as this is being rolled out, it is confusing and lacing a lot of unnecessary burdens on hospitals, patients, and families and providers. hospice should not reject can shown unless it why should be covered by the part d plan. if it is related to the terminal illness, and her stand. but if you have glaucoma and a terminal illness, glaucoma is not related and the hospital provider should be reimbursed for that. my hope would be that we can dig

down to earth relators of difficulty with this issue and that you will work with me -- dig down two or three players of difficulty with this issue and that you will work with me and others on this. >> i look forward to working on that issue, in terms of how we can figure out how to pay for the right things and do things that are implement. >> with four seconds left, as a former governor, to me just say that -- let me just say that one of the things we often try to do as state is to look at innovative programs, to try to get a waiter, whether it is medicaid or chip. but a lot of these programs never move from innovative test models to actually becoming permanent parts of a state program. this, to me, is an area ripe for administrative review. at some point, you have either proving your case and should be accepted as part of the state program, or rejected. again, i hope you will work with me on this. >> i will, senator. >> thank you.

chairman, andmr. this burwell, thank you for your willingness to step forward for what will be a very challenging tax -- task. you will be among folks who have had the worst job in washington. i congratulate you on seeking a promotion. [laughter] but i do think you come at it, therefore with a different perspective than other hhs secretaries have had in modern times, which is that of a budget cutter and someone who has had the possibility for oversight and trying to find efficiencies. i think that is really important right now. i hope you will continue to have that attitude at hhs. , will focus on medicare because i think you would agree with me that when you look at not just the health care issues, but also the fiscal issues, if we don't figure out a way to reform this incredibly important, but unsustainable

program, we will have a difficult time today our fiscal house in order. and as you found out when you were at omb, this is not an easy task. there is obviously a lot of difficulty in touching any aspect of medicare. but the reality is, the trust fund, which is the trust fund covering hospital care and skilled nursing and so on, is expected to be insolvent by 2026, according to the most recent trustees report. even if that were not true, we know that medicare as a program currently offers three dollars in benefits for every one dollar in taxes that a retiree contributes. that is your typical family in cincinnati or in washington, d.c. program already that is heavily subsidized by general revenues. and heading toward this , even with the general revenue contributions. .y question to you is this

in this confluence of omb and hhs that may well come together here with your confirmation, what are your thoughts about it? and let me ask you a very specific one that i think you should be able to answer in the affirmative. in the president's budget in the past couple of years, he has inluded a change in the way which the recipients of part b and part d benefits pay their premiums. he said there ought to be additional premiums for folks -- whoe around $170,000 make a certain amount per month. in retirement. in the president's budget, it was $56 million over a 10 year budget. -- $56 billion over a 10 year budget. that it willicated be over $400 billion in the next 10 years.

budget.fast-growing it is what we ought to be focusing on here in congress and with the administration. my question is, one, i assume you support the president budget proposal. but, two, would you be willing to support it as far as means testing under medicare to be able to deal with -- we talked about sgr. my question is really about deficit reduction to come together to deal with a problem that has been difficult politically for us to handle in the past two years in congress. would you support a proposal as a stand-alone measure? >> senator, i agree with you. i think one of the real benefits of the premium income testing -- income testing for premiums has to do with the fact that it is a structural change and you get those benefits in the out years that are important to the members and the deficit space also when i think about the omb,its and the my role at i think it is important to understand that the driver is

the issue of health care costs the medicare system. but it is also our demographics. and because of that, the magnitude of the problem when one gets to the specifics of what you're going to do to resolve that issue, i think it actually takes a combination of things to do that. i think it takes things as you are discussing, that are on the beneficiary side. it takes things that are on the provider side. it takes things like revenue. >> but as you know, we have already done a lot on the provider side already. my question for you is, in the president's budget, i assume you support the policy. would you be able to support a policy initiative, whether in the context of sgr, deficit reduction, or tax extenders, or whatever it is? do you support the proposal? >> i support the proposal in the context that the president's budget presented it. and as i said before, all things are on the table. >> why does revenue have to be part of the conversation with regards to means testing?

>> with regard to means testing, it is strictly via 2 -- the issue of deficit reduction in the long term. thingse looks at overall, you get to this is specifics. you get to a premium perspective, beneficiary perspective, the perspective of providers. that is where you get to with integration as well. >> a few moments left. you were saying that with regard to means testing on premiums that there have to be tax increases. let me ask you this. when someone pays you a higher premium, aren't they paying the government more? is and that a taxpayer over a certain income paying for a benefit that they would otherwise not have to pay? >> these do affect high income, but what is important is when one is looking are talking about a package, i think it is important to see what it -- what is in the package. what is it you are paying for and what are the offsets that you use. but mr. chairman, please indulge

me. you are saying that you insist on raising taxes on wealthier individuals, in order that wealthier and visuals could pay more to the government. and by the way, the congressional budget office says it is also revenue, which is premium being paid to the government. is that the logic? >> in the president's budget as presented, there are a number of different elements that do everything from corporate tax reform to other things. that is why i actually think it is important to look at a package in its entirety and to understand those ramifications for it, whether it is high-income people or other beneficiaries. >> time is expiring here. let me make the obvious point that it will be very difficult to make the babysit -- baby steps on deficit reduction when people cannot agree about paying more to the government, that it is something that can be done outside of them having to pay more to the government. the logic does not seem to fit for me. i'm hopeful that we can make progress on this issue. i'm hopeful that despite what you said here today, given your background at omb, and that you would be willing to work with us

on the steps. >> thank you, senator portman. senator schumer. >> thank you, director burwell. i'm delighted you are here. were just a fabulous omb director lew and i think you'll make a great secretary. i'm enthusiastically in support and i think you will be passed by a large majority. the only superlatives that i my gooden concede -- friend senator coburn in praising you on this issue. i have two issues of concern. the first is about something called powdered alcohol. recently in april, the treasury department's trade and tax approvedb -- ttb, powdered alcohol. it is not in stores yet.

it is just as it sounds. it can be mixed with liquid or even started. once the amount of powder in each package is resolved, alcohol makers -- powdered alcohol makers indicated they will seek labels for their product to be approved. it is on track to be on shelves in the fall. it is troubling to me. obviously, you can drink a lot more alcohol in powdered form than in liquid form, just because of the volume. you can put it on food. kids can sneak it into dances, concerts, sporting events, in their pockets, in their shoes. is really troubling. the only hope we have of stopping alcohol from getting on the shelves -- and mothers against drunk driving is very concerned with this -- is the fda. and you will oversee the fda. i believe that the fda should get involved. it is our premier consumer

agency. and i hope they can investigate this new substance just as they ,id with four logo -- loco which was alcohol and caffeine makes, and they banned it. that was proven unsafe and i believe this will. all i'm asking is whether you will commit to having the fda look into this new how call product -- alcohol product for health and safety reasons. >> this is a new issue. it is one i would want to understand better and i would want to know which jurisdiction and exactly why. as far as it being a tax issue, understand that, but why it has not been previously looked at by fta. >> they haven't looked at it, and i urge you to do them -- to do so. >> i will look at it further if i'm am confirmed. >> thank you. the other issue of concern is a hydra, where the fda has been worse. we have opioid abuse all over

the country in urban and suburban and rural areas. powerful version of hydrocodone was approved for the market without the same temper tamperproof preventions in place for things like vicodin and oxycontin. the fda approved it even with opposition from many centers. and lawddiction experts enforcement around the country alarmed. there are ways to make it tamperproof and ways to make it you cannot turn it into a powder and stored it or inject it. you know the problems we face in every part of the country with prescription drugs. would you review this decision by the fda when you are in office? >> the issue of ,rescription drug abuse is one being from a world community in

southern west virginia, where i have seen his issues firsthand in terms of how damaging they are to both the health and the economy. an issue i take very seriously. one of the things i want to do when i am confirmed is that i work with the da on science-based decisions. if i am confirmed, this is something i would want to understand how the decision was made. >> thank you. again, i hope you will be actively involved. i understand the necessary caution when sitting at the table. but i know who you are and i think you will get involved. medicare advantage. senator crepeau talked about this. i don't want to get into details. i only have 27 seconds left. there are some measure against rips that are abusive and off the federal government. there are some that are great, many of which are in upstate new york. we have a ton of them in rochester. i think 65% of all medicare recipients are on medicare

advantage and most of them are very happy. i would urge you to separate the wheat from the chaff. some people on my side of the aisle, the minute they hear medicare advantage they say this terrible. it is just not true in my spirit. i hope when you look at medicare advantage, you will give it a careful look and not take one broad brush and say the programs are all bad, because they are not. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you, senator schumer. let's see, next is senator carper and then senator to me. >> -- senatortoomey. yourngratulations on nomination. with mixed emotions. if you are confirmed for this position, we lose you at omb.

the president is going to nominate tom coburn to be head of omb. and my colleagues said, we cannot confirm her. i just want to say, that's not the plan. we love working with you at omb. we love working with the team that you have put together. one of the things we have focused on is how to get better results for less money. and most things, in terms of being successful in government, academia, business, whatever it might be, the key is leadership. why thef the reasons department of homeland security, which for years was kind of a laughingstock when it came to managing finances -- actually, wonder of wonders, last year they had a clean audit. and after 20 something years, department of defense still has not gotten that. dhs has done that. the key is leadership. progress and reducing improper payments, last

year, $50 million in medicare, in probably $20 million medicaid. talk to me about what you have learned omb to make further progress at the department of health and human services. learning in your current job that will allow us to get better results for less money with some of these very eccentric programs? we need to save money. >> one of the things i've learned is being very specific about what you want to achieve. and very cooker, getting to what the him most important levers are -- what the most important levers are. getting into the conversation today, actually, there are conflicting interests. it is important as a leader to weekly get to the problem-solving in terms of the interest and how you go forward.

in order to make the progress we need a medicare fraud, it comes back to the issue we were discussing with regard torac's. and continuously thinking areugh the core objectives and where we will improve. there was -- those are some of the results we have seen in the reduction of improper payments, which have gone down for the entire federal government. this medicare and medicaid issue will be a large portion of that. left acoburn and i secure briefing from the secretary of homeland security. talk about border security. we talked about all the folks going up across the border not --m mexico, but hundreds, honduras, el salvador, guatemala also the reason why as they are bad lives and they will do almost anything to get appear. i said commits not enough for us walls.d stronger

we have to look at the underlying causes, the compelling reasons that make people want to risk life and limb to get appear for a better life. i want to talk about underlying causes with respect to obesity. underlying causes with respect to medication adherence. a -- obesityit is is a huge driver for medical costs in our country. diabetics, the money that we spend on that sort of thing. and if you look at medication, if people comply with the directions and take their medications, how much money would that save you from -- would that save? the pace program, for those who are medical -- medicare and dually, talkible

about medication adherence, programs like the pace program, and how those can be helpful. >> it comes down to the fact that prevention is such an important part of reducing costs. if we can get in front of these things, it is actually a similar concept to what we were talking about earlier with regard to instead of pay and chase, you get in front. things are generally cheaper, better, and easier if you can get in front of them. some of the things we need to do our, we need to help make sure we have the analytics at show what works in terms of whether it is obesity and diabetes prevention -- i think there are models and we need to make sure those analytics are rigorous. we need to also ensure we are educating and indicating. whether that is in regard to prevention or in the face of making sure people understand the rules of the road with regard to medicare. the question of educating and making sure people have the right information. the last thing is about tools. and in my experience, in working on some of these issues with the walmart foundation with regard to how people use healthy eating, you can provide the food

. on the company's site, reduce the cost of fruits and vegetables. but even with the communities and populations, it actually took educational programs to teach people. when you are shopping and you are a mother or a father and you are in the grocery store for a very short time and you need to get home and fix that meal, in terms of serving things you've never used before, there is an educational component in order that you can actually use the tools. and share our strength is an i think working through is necessary to make the progress. service soor your far. >> inc. you very much for being here and for your open and cooperative discussions we have had leading up to this.

i have a couple of questions. the first is alzheimer's or a good over 500 americans have been diagnosed. 33% of all americans over the age of 80 five have alzheimer's. if you live long enough chances are very high you are going to get it. is 100% fail. we have no cure. we have no meaningful treatment, onlyn fiscal year 2013 1.7% of the budget went to alzheimer's research. does that strike you as to the challenge? >> our overall plan there were but i think you know

for anything to get increases is a difficult to do. >> i am talking about the $30 billion a get. they control where that goes. 1.7% sound right? >> i think the question is something i would want to spend time on how they think about distribution. it's one of the things you and i discussed. a lot of it is done based on history. when one does something based on history there are changes one may want to re-examine. >> i appreciate because the history has changed. come mores has he serious and grave a threat. i do find it troubling what i understood you to be saying.

be ifea seems to republicans and the president did have felt it was appropriate forsk americans to pay more the benefits they get, if as proportionate to ask them to painful more for medicare. -- to pay more for medicare. it's common sense. it has to come at the price of raising taxes. >> some of the revenues are not like that. there are revenues in the plan. there is overlap.

that's why i think what is important is to look at the to actually put together plans. out we try to take a piece that becomes difficult. >> i am in favor of a broad comprehend the reform. if that remains elusive the idea of asking wealthiest americans to pay more for the benefit strikes the as a reasonable inc., and i would hope we don't have to raise taxes to get there. want to follow-up on a separate issue. that is the budget reclassification. my understanding is the payment that will come from insurers now that the federal government is that it has gone

from what would have been its own account to a management account. my goal is to ensure we will have trimmed their and the. i am hoping you can commit that muchll be able to know how money came from insurers or goes through insurers or this account. -- for this account. or anr it is a surplus o expense. >> that is part of an executive order where i cannot discuss pacific's. this is something i want to work with you on with regards to transparency. i think there is a fundamental andtion you are asked inc. one i would look forward to working with you on. >> does the rule that restricts

you from commenting on rules forbid you from making commitment to having transparency? >> that in thing i think we have talked about throughout the hearing, which is transparency and accuracy are two things i want to do in a timely fashion. >> staying in the state of pennsylvania. casey. >> i know we are getting to the end. we are getting close to home plate. we are thankful for your patience, your willingness to serve again. i know we had a chance to discuss some children's health insurance issues. foron't have a lot of time questions beyond the two i have.

just some of the numbers have been pretty significant. have heard the national numbers. 8 million and rolled. almost 5 million in children's health insurance. i know senator rockefeller has een though much work. in pennsylvania a little over 18,000 enrollment. almost 360,000 people. some big numbers. i will move to at least two children's issues. one is regarding child welfare. we have counties taking advantage of the wager working

to make sure they are trying to invest in incentives for what andt we called group homes to try to get them into better but also to make sure as we do that we are using the evidence-based strategy. we have got five counties in our used that have waiver. i would ask you to work with us on to aspect. working for comprehensive reform and also tofare help all children in that system and secondly to promote better outcomes. we asked for your commitment to work on that.

fax i would like to work with these are issues i think are very important. was verye things i interested in was the psychotropic drug. 17% of all children in the system are on psychotropic drugs. i look forward to working with you across a range of issues. >> one area of policy that is , theng some promise program where you have medicare innovation.

i know a lot of the innovation is focused on medicare. what i hope is through medicaid enoughp that we can have so we can new models get some benefits for children in addition to the result and ask for your help on that. >> i think we do want to get the benefits for each system. we have examples where we are taking what is working and medicaid and trying to shifted to medicare. in terms of what is cost-effective. >> i am out of time, but i wanted to make one final point. anyone who has had

anything to do with child advocacy will tell us children are not small adults, so we need specialized strategies for kids that may be different from how we care for adult. we are grateful for your commitment. >> my six and a half-year-old and for natural roof that every day. -- proved that every day. >> thanks for your willingness 10 years at the head of the bill and melinda gates foundation. i am sure the time on the board will come in helpful. i want to ask about two things and see how you plan to mend them. one of them i don't expect you

to know. she might know that section. are talking about a formula that will reward providers for a low cost quality and penalize providers that don't and toentially move the nation an outcome based model. this is part of the implementation. the bill we were recently looking at had a provision that reform that. takesteps do you plan to to implement that system. were you planning on proceeding , your philosophy

on implementation. >> that is something i want to look at. the question of how we are going to be able to articulate well at the and connect payment to quality would be an important part of transition. that is government and also the private vector. we will have to work from the perspective of the government ride. thing because for your hip surgery isn't the front or the back. is it the end of the d.l. just ?- is it the anesthesiologist i think we can turn to the private sector. >> they have already shown great results.

can we ignore this? let's put a provision in that gets the rest of the country to start doing this but in a slow, incremental way. or do we go with the results , given what weg are looking at? we need to make these reforms. you are going to hear a lot from me. we don't want to go slow. we want to go faster. i will note even in the affordable care act there were a lot of states that took us up for him rebalance and from nursing home care to community

based care. these were governors who said they didn't even like the act. i hope we will run faster on this. the second is in the implementation of the basic health plan, which allows them to allah five for the medicaid coverage. this was something we gave states an option on. the state was late to get them done. they finally came out in september. they were supposed to be done previous lee. we want to make sure states that shoes that will be -- choose that will be ready. want to go through the

sequencing and the information as well as to have the technology we need to make sure the next years run smoothly. be one of the first things to find out who need which information. >> if you know enough you don't need to discuss it, that i need an answer. has ignored for a long time that row graham. i want to get a firm answer so ou can do that for the record. i guess i am 16 seconds over. obviously graduate medical education and paying for medical education.

i don't know what role you think the agent he is going to play and helping to identify the need .or filling that gap we are not going to get there if we don't have an expansion. >> the president's current proposal does some of that expansion. care andarget primary that we have shortages in vessel to use. in addition expanding the health out helps to get more prio in the field. expand who can benefit. otherst physicians but

physician assistants. it's a place we need to focus and use all the tools. we need to focus on primary care. hopefully it is a good start but we will have a discussion on how big the need is and why we need to focus on moving forward. thank you for your willingness to serve. >> just a couple of matters. then we are going to liberate you. appreciate your answers. we have focused on the health care portfolio. that's why i thought it was good that senator casey continued to focus on the human nervous as us

backed and foster care, temporary assist the and. load.ve an expensive work can you give me a sense of what your priority would be on human services? >> with regards to setting they have, articulated some of those priorities. i would want to hear from the stakeholders and the department they are broad, and they are numerous. they include higher security to some of the issues we have been talking about. the administration for community living talks about some of the hospiceith regard to and how we think about people in is thatunities.

cost-effective? the rage of those issues is something i want to hear about. >> on the medicare advantage issue, i think you know the pacific northwest has some of the highest rate. you have been added for decades. -- at it for decades. we have heard senators on both sides of the aisle touch on it. point the premiums are down. up, and a number of questionable operators is down. i remember some tremendous oversight. it was gross move the

-- some of the practices. in response to the questions. you essentially said we ought to and to workfully through these issues to essentially continue on track. that is what i heard the -- senator say, and i think that is welcome. the last i want to mention is a aflection on the last two and half hours. we have been added for something , andtwo and a half hours from the beginning where you had this i partisan sendoff from dr.

coburn and rockefeller, who has d.t budge. what you have done is try to respond to challenges in a way that ought to bring people together. that is why i referenced your part with respect to part d. we now know it has come in at costoss in terms of projection. mu they voted senators said, we are going to try to make this work. think you can be a powerful

agent once you are confirmed. you can be a powerful agent in terms of trying to bring people together. trying to bring people together regardless of how they voted. that is my take away that you can help cut through some -- wezation we have ian, have seen. is there anything you would like to add? only that in the senate so full of toxicity and wasnership, i think if it two and a half hours it was two and a half hours.

listening, your knowledge, your ability to defer -- youyou have in done have not done because you are still in another job because you are anxious to get to these isblems is what the chairman saying. how do you begin to take down the walls on the subject so -- ands lay important enormously important as health care? interesting in the position i am sure you are going to have. you seem to fit comfortably. baking myclose by colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

been very helpful in allowing us to move forward. they have indicated members can have until 6 p.m. on their stay. on thursday. it is my intent to work to report your nomination after the answers are received. we thank you, and with that, the committee is adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]

>> we saw a reporters talking to senator wyden and rockefeller.

we are looking at the senate floor. lawmakers are considering a number of nominees. confirmation votes on three of them are scheduled. you can see live senate coverage right now on c-span 2. coming up, the veterans affairs secretary will appear before senate lawmakers to testify about reports of serious delays in patient care. we will have live coverage beginning at 10:00 eastern. also a senate subcommittee on africa will lead a hearing surrounding the kidnapping of 300 schoolgirls in nigeria and the government response. 3.t is on c-span

at the white house press secretary jay carney responded the u.s. response to nigeria, saying the u.s. is not actively considering sending military forces. mccain is making a call for -- senator mccain is making a call for special forces to rescue those girls. call?s the is that something that might be examined? >> let's not get ahead of ourselves. advising as the nigerian government to locate nd rescue these girls.

finding them is the first step. personnel will be in nigeria in an advisory capacity. actively considering that the appointment of u.s. forces to participate in a combined rescue mission. i think it's important to not get ahead of ourselves. we are engaged at many levels as part of this group with personnel from africa and elsewhere to assist the government in the effort underway to find the kidnapped girls. that includes a reconnaissance flight. it also includes unmanned, snarmed reconnaissance flight

in an effort to find them. areathe narrowly drawn where there is the greatest ispicion the girls might be an area the size of west virginia, so this is a vast expanse of territory. >> have they been broke apart or split up? have information about the exact location or , buter they are altogether time is of the essence. that is why we were so eager to assist. to step back and understand the challenges the search effort is facing.

group islamic terrorist boko haram and the abduction of the schoolgirls was the topic of and event yesterday. a native of the village where the girls were kidnapped told her story and how boko haram killed her father and brother in front of her. this is just over an hour. >> good afternoon. i would like to welcomethe conf. has had a long history of working on human rights. i want to thank her for her work.

i want to mention nina and her colleagues have been doing this for a number of years and telling the stories that need to be told and bringing to greater attention the suffering we all need to pay attention to and act to reverse. >> it's a real honor to be weroducing this panel today. have a human rights counselor for the jubilee cap rain. -- campaign. he has been here before. ofbrought another survivor boko haram to tell about his ordeal. head,an was shot in the

and he lived and survived and .ame here today we are also extremely honored to have deborah peter, who i am sure is hud the cost -- hudson's youngest eager. her familyears old. moved to the very town where the 300 girls were up updated -- were abducted and enslaved. it's a terrible story but an extremely important one for americans to hear.

important story for her to tell. please join me in giving a very encouraging welcome. can you start by telling us what happened that night and where ou were. , me and myecember 22 brother started hearing a gun shooting. my father told me to forget

about it. he came back home. to taketo the bathroom a shower. at 7:33 men knocked on the door. 7:30 three men knocked on the door. aboutaited on my dad three minutes. they don't have time to wait for him. when he came back they told him he should deny his faith. he told them he would rather die than go to hellfire.

god that anyone who denied him, he said he is going to deny. dad did not deny his faith, so they shot him in the chest. they told him to be quiet or they would shoot my brother, too . there were three of them that night. quiet, brother keeps there were three. one is the leader. servant. is just a the servant said they should kill my brother, but they said, he shouldn't kill him because he is too young. a point. he has

they go ahead and shoot him twice in the chest so he falls. they shoot him again in his outh. i was in shock. i didn't know what was happening. the next day the army came back. >> thank you for sharing that. that is not easy to talk about. us why they singled out your family? who were these men?

did you know them, and why did he come to your house? >> i know one of them. the other is loving close to my house. -- living close to my house. i don't know them because i don't go close to muslim people. the reason they came to my house is my dad was a pastor. they come to him and kill him. in november they burned his church. he didn't give up. they said they were going to kill him. >> your father was a christian pastor, and he had a church, and that was burned down the month before. northeast. in the

your family has connections? chiboc.amily is from you came to the united states to come to a summer camp. to bring youd here. it was a 9/11 foundation to help children of terrorism. you have not talked about your tory before. this is the first time you are whyting to talk about it. are you talking about it now? >> i want to help the other kids. i want to tell people what is

happening. they told me i should help them. fax what are you hoping will come of your talks? >> i hope if people hear my they will understand and said, andof what god they will understand what it means to stand strong. >> thank you very much. we are learning now in the at least 100 or more have been forcibly converted, that hey were christian. is that your understanding? would there be christians?

>> chibok is a lot of christians. we are related to each other, so they don't usually fight. >> i don't know if you are aware, but the u.s. government haram asesignated boko a terrorist organization last november, and before that the state department had been saying boko haram had nothing to do religion. the assistant secretary johnny carson was saying -- i was dumbfounded after another attack on a church and went to 12, and he gave a speech saying it had nothing to do with religion. thank you so much. do you want to take over? a manual just returned from nigeria on friday.

he had been in the northeast and in cameroon for three weeks collecting stories from victims. me, and you for having thank you for turning up at this lunchtime event where we are not having lunch. [laughter] headlines, ande we thought it would be a good idea to drill down a little and put a face to the reality of the atrocities in nigeria. this is important because we faced a major wall of denial. this is one we have known for a couple years since the

fact-finding mission. i should point out she was , and theyisa twice said to her you cannot make this stuff up. said, you don't have family ties. she wanted to come to america for a terror survivors camp. the good thing about the story as it is a story about what is good for america. victimsdation of 9/11 m' decided to have a camp. it is that program we got her and rolled in and brought her

back to the states. they said, let's find her a school so she can go to school. we decided not to put her in a public space because she was very fragile. nightmares.s facing anh we were administration that was denying genocide, we felt we couldn't sacrifice the mental health of this young child. that changed a couple weeks ago when the terrorists went to and abductedge