dr. bret giroir. his recent appointment as secretary azar's point person on opioid policy speaks highly of his capabilities. i am greatful that the finance committee will be the first congressional committee to hear. him in this capacity. how do i pronounce that, is it giroir? okay. i'm also absoluted to have cms kim brandt appear before the committee today. miss brandt likely needs no introduction to my fellow committee members as she was on my staff six years before assuming the role of deputy administrators for operations at cms last year. very proud of her. would like to quickly say while i certainly gave my blessing to miss brandt before she moved on to a cms leadership role. it was difficult for me to see kim go. she's that great a person. i ask you all indulge a point of personal privilege who explain now. i no longer get those uplifting visits from her puppy sherlock. >> the cookie, here they come. >> and those incredible cookies and other goodies. and i don't want this it take away from your

. >> dr., do you agree with her? adm. giroir: i do. >> would you go so far as to say you approve of this message? ms. brandt: yes or i do. -- do. giroir: yes sir, i whenever the senator asks me to write a letter or call somebody, i just do it. it is probably the right thing for you to do as well. i have another question. when i was privileged to be governor of delaware, we established a cabinet council and it included half of my cabinet secretaries who met every month, developed a strategy that we pursued for eight years. said, rather than address the symptoms and problems, let's go to the root causes. several people mentioned root causes. as we confront the opioid todemic, i want to urge you focus not only on treatments, but also to focus on the root causes for this crisis. there are several. our child and family experts tell us individuals with mental health conditions, adverse child experiences, are at a greater risk for abusing drugs. i want to make sure that the hhs has adequate methods of prevention i can reduce drug abuse