seema verma testified in a three our confirmation hearing yesterday. [inaudible conversations] the committee will come order. i would like to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing. today we consider the nomination of seema verma to service administrator of the centers for medicaid, medicare and medicaid services. we are so happy to have you here and your family too. appreciate your willingness to meet at the agency on this article time. i see your family has joined you today to lend support so i extend a warm welcome to all of you and them as well. cms is the world's largest health insurer covering over one third of the us population through medicare and medicaid alone. it has a budget of over $1 trillion and processes over 1.2 billion a year for services provided to some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens. seema verma having dealt with cms extensively as a consultant to numerous state and medicaid programs, you know well the challenges, agency deals on a daily basis. i suspect you also -- it is a thankless one. fraught with numerous challen

today we'll consider seema verma to serve as administrator at centers for medicare and medicaid services. welcome, ms. verma. we're 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 has joined you here today to lend support so i extend a warm welcome to all of you and to them as well. c.m.s. is the world's largest health insurer, covering over 1/3 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 nation's most vulnerable citizens. ms. verma, having dealt with c.m.s. extensively in your capacity as a consultant to numerous state medicaid programs, you know full well the challenges the agency deals with on a daily basis. and i suspect you also know the job you've been nominated for is a thankless one fraught with numerous challenges. the good news is there are opportunities in those challenges, and i believe you're the right person for the job and that you

today we'll consider seema verma to serve

and we'll take you back to the hearing we were showing you with seema verma, nominated by president trump to be the director for centers for medicare and medicaid services. we'll pick it up with questioning from senator hatch, the chairman of the finance committee. chairman hatch: questions to give you. first, is there anything that you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated? ms. verma: consulted with the office of ethics and have indicated any areas where i thought would be an issue and i will be recusing

: as it stands now under the affordable care act, insurers must provide maternity coverage, but seema verma that. >> i don't want to see women being discriminated against. i also think women have to make the decisions that work best for them and their family. >> reporter: the president's pick said women should have options and the choice to pick between health plans that offer maternity coverage and others that don't. >> frankly it's outrageous to think that anyone proposed a health plan that did not cover maternity care. maternity care is not optional. maternal care is necessary for all women. >> reporter: but dr. paul jaris with the march of dimes disagrees. he says over half of pregnancies in the u.s. are unplanned and the idea of choice in this instance could mean life or death. >> that's millions of women in this country who become pregnant who hadn't planned or may have thought they didn't want to become pregnant. that's millions of babies and moms' lives put at risk because they would not at that point have health insurance coverage. >> reporter: the republican-led senate is likely t

so i am directing commissioner connelly to call upon the new cms administrator, seema verma, a state innovator from indiana, and someone who i worked closely with during the trump transition, to remove this roadblock to care and i'm calling upon our congressional delegation to lead this fight in congress as well. eligibility for drug treatment should not be determined by how many beds are in the facility where you seek treatment. so this is the christie plan to attack the epidemic of drug addiction in our state and i am ready to work with and listen to anyone with more ideas on how to address this issue. i'm willing to accept ideas from any corner of the state, from any political party, from any level of government. here's what i'm absolutely unwilling to accept. inaction. i will not have the blood of addicted new jerseyans on my hands because we waited to act. i will not willingly watch another 1600 of our citizens die and watch their families mourn and suffer. we cannot waste another minute of our time in leadership in this town on the next partisan-fueled fake scandal. while our f

nominee seema verma testified on the financial sustainability of the programs and how to improve quality and access. this is just under three hours. >> the committee will come to order. i'd like to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing. today we're going to consider

for this reason, i am pleased to be here today to help recognize miss seema verma, and introduce her to this committee for your consideration. i have always held a personal belief that we accomplish more when we work together. in indiana, we call that hoosier common sense. in working collaboratively to help hoosiers get access to quality healthcare is something miss verma and i had the opportunity to do together. as many of you are already aware, she has played a central role in crafting medicaid policy in many states, including our own. in indiana, she worked with governor daniels and then governor pence as well as other state and federal partners to take advantage of opportunities made possible by the affordable care act, to expand medicaid through the healthy indiana plan. also known as h.i.p. today, it improves health care outcomes and has played a critical role in combatting the opioid abuse and heroin use epidemics. hundreds of thousands of hoosiers currently have health insurance through hip 2.0. a program is an example of what is possible when we work together. as i have shar

>> seema verma at her confirmation hearing. >> i am humbled as a first-generation american to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the president of the united states. it is a testament to the fact that the american dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it. >> all c-span programs are available at c-span.org, either on our homepage or searching the video library. announcer 1: the group knew -- new america hosted a discussion in washington dc about how african-americans can increase their political influence. the panel was made up of political science professors and a slate magazine reporter. this is 90 minutes. mark schmitt: good afternoon and welcome to new america. i am mark schmitt, i am the director of the political reform program and director of studies for new america. i want to welcome you all to this conversation, which is a joint production of the fellows program here and the political reform program. on the topic of the complexity of black political attitudes and voting behavior in the united states, which is to me a fascinating topic. i know

and we'll take you back to the hearing we were showing you with seema verma, nominated by president trump to be the director for centers for medicare and medicaid services. we'll pick it up with questioning from senator hatch, the chairman of the finance committee. chairman hatch: questions to give you. first, is there anything that you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated? ms. verma: consulted with the office of ethics and have indicated any areas where i thought would be an issue and i will be recusing of myself of any matters that would present any potential conflict. chairman hatch: do you know of any person or any reason, personal or otherwise, that would in any way prevent you om honorably discharging the responsibilities to the office to which you have been nominated? ms. verma: i do not. chairman hatch: do you agree without reservation to respond -- anyreasonable inquiry reasonable summons to appear and testify before any -- nor any duel constituted committee of the congress if you

. >> seema verma at her confirmation hearing. >> i am humbled as a first-generation american to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the president of the united states. it is a testament to the fact that the american dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it. >> all c-span programs are available at c-span.org, either on our homepage or searching the video library. announcer 1: the group knew -- new america hosted a discussion in washington dc about how african-americans can increase their political influence. the panel was made up of political science professors and a slate magazine reporter. this is 90 minutes.

. >> seema verma from the centers for medicaid and medicare services at her confirmation hearing. >> i'm extremely humbled as a first generation american to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the president of the united states. it is a testament to the fact that the american dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it. >> all c-span programs are available at c-span.org either on our home page or by searching the video library. >>> continuing our look at richmond, this is the city's famed monument avenue with statues hon tooring war heroes h as robert e. lee, stonewall jackson. richmond native arthur ashe was added to the collection. conversations about monument avenue and which statues should be added, changed or removed continued today. up next, our visit to richmond continues as we travel to the virginia historical society to learn about the state's history. >> welcome to the virginia historical society. we are standing at the entrance to the story of virginia which is our long-term exhibition that covers all of virginia history from pre-history