ms. burwell, for being here today. ms. burwell, there seems to be broad bipartisan agreement that we need to reduce federal health care spending. and republicans argue that to accomplish this, we need entitlement reform. but they shouldn't forget that we passed major entitlement reform just four years ago as part of the affordable care act. and that it's already working to reduce medicare spending. so i just had a couple of numbers to look at. in 2009, before obamacare, the medicare trust fund was projected to go bankrupt in 2017. today, the medicare trust fund is solvent at least until 2026. moreover, every congressional budget office estimate of medicare spending since the aca was passed has continued to show bigger savings, that's bigger, not smaller savings, than the report before. in fact, last month cbo projected that medicare spending for 2014 to 2020 will be $500 billion less than they originally projected after the bill was passed. and put that in perspective, that's a cut in federal spending, which is six times bi

ms. burwell, thank you for joining us today. ms. burwell is currently serving as director of the office of management and budget, a position to which she was confirmed by a vote of 96-0 in april 2013. ms. burwell has proven herself as an effective and dynamic manager, with experience and skill in leading a wide range of organizations. recently, i had a very productive meeting with ms. burwell and concluded that she is a deeply impressive nominee and is eminently qualified to serve as the next secretary of health and human services. the united states faces serious public health challenges, many of which require urgent answers. very often, the entire world looks to hhs for leadership. just last friday, this country confronted the first ever incident of mers (middle east respiratory syndrome) within our borders. hhs responded quickly to educate the public, investigate the situation, and develop a path forward. that was done through the cdc. the gold standard for public health in the world. china has named its public health system china

ms. burwell, i appreciate your reference -- >> just very briefly, ms. urwell, i appreciate your reference to part d. senator cardin? chair burwell. thank you to you and your family. act sets uple care the right structure for quality health care for all americans. there are many divisions of the law i would like to see strengthened and improved and i would hope we could work together to do that. in the few minutes i have, i would like to go over a couple positions we have not had a chance to talk about. i want to get on the record -- establishes all of the to aagencies, elevated nih national institute. there are reasons for that. i gave you the example of baltimore, a study funded by the institute, where depending on where you live, it could be a difference of 30 years of life expectancy. you know the statistics on individual diseases and differences among different ethnic communities. intended that the focus on minority health and health disparity would be a priority within our health care to deal withg previous failures we have had in trying to do with

ms. burwell to the committee. i have worked with her for the , and prior too her confirmation as omb director , and i actually look for people who have strong trade -- strong traits, and the fact that she is willing to make this family sacrifice, and it is a family sacrifice, is reassuring for us as a country that we would have somebody -- i thought i would talk about 5 areas of sylvia burwell that not everybody else knows will stop the first is that she is competent. says something, because so often we have people placed in positions in washington that aren't competent for the task at hand. the second is that she has outstanding character, and i have experienced that over the past year working closely with her and the people at a one b on the problems we have seen both at home and security -- homeland security and cyber and other areas. when you have somebody that is competent and also a strong , you find a way to get past your differences to solve problems. finally, as senator hatch mentioned, responsiveness is

ms. burwell.hanks for being here today. like others here, i'm very happy that you've got the experience that you do at omb. and i wanted to ask you a couple questions along those lines. when i a number of years ago first became superintendent of the denver public skooms i carried the budget of the school district around with me for six weeks unable to understand it. i had worked with budgets before in the private and public sector. this was impenetrable. finally six weeks in, i realized that i wasn't reading a budget in the sense you or i would understand it as a management tool. it was an accounting tool. it was a tool to demonstrate compliance with the state regulator and with the federal regulator. but it was not about driving outcomes for kids, which is what we were supposed to be doing. my sense having been here is that we face very much the same thing when it comes to health care. the morass of regulations and the reimbursement policies of cms, the uncertainty that's caused by the fighting u

ms. burwell's background of results shows why she has earned that respect. she is a graduate of harvard and oxford where she was a rhodes scholar. in the clinton administration as a top economics adviser to the president and the secretary of the treasury. she has years of experience in the nonprofit sector. first, as chief operating officer of global development at the gates foundation, she led efforts to summon the most pressing global health challenges of our time. as the head of the walmart foundation, she was a tireless advocate for the veterans hiring program. she was a leader in the fight against hunger. ms. burwell has also been a steady hands as an effective leader at the office of management and budget. thehelps navigate difficulties of the government shutdown last fall. in the year that she served as deficit, the federal has continued to plummet. there's one other important fact he keep in mind. the committee considers her nomination. you said we cannot leave this generation's office of management and budget without being thoroughly steeped in heal

ms. burwell, i appreciate your reference -- >> just very briefly, ms. urwell, i appreciate your reference to part d. senator cardin? chair burwell. thank you to you and your family. act sets uple care the right structure for quality health care for all americans. there are many divisions of the law i would like to see strengthened and improved and i would hope we could work together to do that. in the few minutes i have, i would like to go over a couple positions we have not had a chance to talk about. i want to get on the record -- establishes all of the to aagencies, elevated nih national institute. there are reasons for that. i gave you the example of baltimore, a study funded by the institute, where depending on where you live, it could be a difference of 30 years of life expectancy. you know the statistics on individual diseases and differences among different ethnic communities. intended that the focus on minority health and health disparity would be a priority within our health care to deal withg previous failures we have had in trying to do with

ms. burwell and hope the committee will endorse her nomination. >> so that happened. well, that's sort of change although, if you had been paying attention to the republican attempt to cross raid from obamacare to something else, it wouldn't necessarily surprise you. because they are trying to very subtly move two different levels on the rhetorical switchboard at the same time it's easy not to notice. there was a similar scene one day before. the republican controlled house was holding a subcommittee hearing with a bun of insurance company executives. but exits on the republican side allowed multiple democrats to speak in a row and let heavy democratic criticism of republicans go unanswered. there was a dearth of lawmakers on the left side of the rostrum and a full bench on the right. as republicans grew bored, democrats held sway to get to the bottom of how many americans were paying obamacare premiums, 67% as republicans have prematurely reported, or was it far higher? >> on the exchange 85% of the people paid, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> 86% paid, correc

ms. burwell. in your summary of your very impressive career you describe yourself as having had the opportunity to lead large and complex organizations and work across a range of issues in each odds my role i worked on forming strong teams, forging relationships and delivering results. has it been your experience that having solid clear performance metrics is an advantage. >> it is a an advantage to know where you're headed. >> that's part of the accountability that you just described to senator hagen, correct? >> yes. knowing where you're headed and how you're going to measure whether you get there or not is important. >> under the affordable care act we've made significant progress in cleaning up that. that's been good. the access issue i think has been moved in a very good direction with 8 million people signed. that leaves a third very, very big issue, which is the cost of the system. a very well regarded report came out recently that predicted that spending on health care which already consum

ms. burwell, you have a reputation for competence. ggest you're going to need it. >> reporter: that warning notwithstanding, republicans, like lamar alexander, mostly used the hearing to take aim not at burwell, but at the health care law. >> republicans would like to repair the damage that obamacare has done. we'd like to prevent future damage as responsibly and rapidly as we can. >> reporter: but burwell did not concede that point. instead, in her opening statement, she argued the effects of the law have been positive. >> the department's work to ensure accessible, affordable, quality healthcare through the implementation of the affordable care act is making a difference in the lives of our families and our communities while strengthening the economy. >> reporter: if confirmed, burwell would succeed kathleen sebelius, who announced her resignation last month. republicans roundly criticized her for the botched rollout of the federal online insurance exchange last fall. today, south carolina republican tim scott pressed burwell on whet

ms. burwell's qualifications has allowed some to being a nounal that the affordable act is working. let me gist be absolutely clear on this point. i oppose obamacare, and i'm going to fight as long as it takes to repeal that misguided law and replace it with a system that actually works for american families. that's why i've collaborated with cephal of my colleagues to unveil a framework for the patient care act, a plan that would repeal obamacare and replace it with common sense, patient-centered reforms that reduce health care costs and increase access to affordable, high-quality care. it would save the taxpayers about d 1 trillion. and yet have a better health system than we have today with obamacare. let me also be clear on another point. no matter what the administration say, the relate city that obamacare is not working. the president and his allies are claiming that the law is a success because the administration has mostly corrected the botched rollout of healthcare.gov and has had a certain number of individuals sign up as if forcing people into obamacare under the coercive

ms. burwell and hope the committee will endorse her nomination. >> i would like to take this opportunity my colleagues i support her nomination. i will vote for her in the finance committee. >> great. best of luck. look at the headlines about how it actually went. obama's hhs nominee breezes through senate confirmation hearing. burwell gets friendly treatment. pick draws senators' praise at confirmation hearing. the plan to go hurricane force at the obamacare hearing, fizzled out. like republicans changed their minds against going crazy against obamacare. like today was the day they decide they'd were going to leave obama care alone after all this time. and instead, go totally crazy about something else entirely. yes, today was the day they made that pivot. details ahead. we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. and i'm his mom at the dog park. the kids get trail mix, and here's what you get after a full day of chasing that cute little poodle from down the street. mm hmm delicious milo's kitchen chicken meatballs. they look homemade

ms. burwell this morning the new head of the health and human services if she is confirmed. she's going to be in charge of spending more money than the entire congress will madam chairwoman. she spent over chilean dollars that's automatically on mandatory spending and if we do our job will barely appropriate that amount of money for everything we do. i'm not saying this is a political statement. i'm just saying based on what i've seen over 30 years of the state and federal level we have to find a way to agree on that. we are going to render our engineering and science and research and a good it is obsolete and we are going to render this committee obsolete. that's a very important part of what we have to do. another thing we have to do is to make sure of the money we spend, we spend it well and my question is of dr. prabhakar and secretary moniz darpa and arma e. a fledgling cousin in the department of energy you have a little different method of funding and a little different method of accountability. it's been enormously successful. the internet gps stealth and all these t

ms. burwell, again, thank you very much for you outstanding public service through all of your adult life. thank you for your willingness to take on this very important task. we look forward to your very speedy vote and approval and look forward to working with you as the new secretary of health and human services. >> mr. chairman, thank you. >> thank you. >> serve the committee will need to prove her nomination before can go to the vote. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the house veterans affairs committee called an emergency meeting today to subpoena documents from the veterans affairs department dealing with the va health facilities. whistleblowers from the phoenix, arizona va say that officials kept a secret waiting last of veterans seeking treatment in an effort to hide the backlog of veterans needing medical care. >> good morning, everybody. i would like to take care of one item of business this morning by hearing a motion for the issuance of a subpoena for the department of veterans affairs to produce e-mails and other correspondence related to the investigati

ms. burwell said she was willing to be as flexible as she possibly could with states that want to explore these innovative methods. so hopefully with a new secretary coming through the doors at h.h.s., maybe this is a new moment for these states to take another look at medicaid expansion, because this is just a matter of conscience. 5.7 million people are going without health care, are potentially dying, as charlene dill did, simply because of politics. david from virginia wrote this. he said, "i am the coverage gap. i'm a single 41-year-old male. i save medicaid thousands of dollars per month by caring for my 99-year-old grandmother at home without pay, rather than place her in a nursing home at medicaid's expense. i do not qualify for medicaid, even though i have zero income. i have to cross the state line into kentucky to receive potentially lifesaving cancer screenings and hopefully receive treatment if i get bad news. virginia republicans hate the president and our governor so much that they're willing to let thousands of us die. it's high time that these delegates place human lives