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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, families across the country are struggling with skyrocketing costs--health costs, grocery costs, energy costs--but instead of working to address these challenges, Republicans are bringing yet another disastrous Trump nominee forward to support his agenda.

Thomas March Bell has been nominated to be the independent watchdog at America's health Agency. There could not be a more dangerous choice for this position.

I have long believed in the bipartisan coalition that works here to defend the integrity and the independence of the inspectors general.

Senator Grassley once said:

Inspectors General are intended to be equal opportunity investigators and are designed to combat waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct . . . without regard to political affiliation. They are the ultimate [drainers of the swamp].

One of Donald Trump's very first acts after taking office was to fire these independent investigators. In less than a year, he has gutted the integrity and independence of these Offices.

A few years ago, this body overwhelmingly passed a law to secure the independence of the inspectors general in government, but 4 days into his second term, Donald Trump threw that law into the dumpster. He unlawfully fired nearly two dozen inspectors general across the government. Now he is replacing them with a wave of partisan operatives who stand ready to sabotage the independent oversight of inspectors general. Meanwhile, it has been crickets from Republicans. They are just happy to let him do it.

No nominee has exemplified the assault on independent oversight quite like March Bell, the nominee to serve as Health and Human Services inspector general.

I would be remiss if I didn't start off by noting that he is nominated to fill a position that is not legally vacant. He is nominated to fill the role of an inspector general that was illegally fired by Donald Trump.

My Democratic colleagues and I on the Finance Committee urged Chairman Crapo to pause this nomination. It was met with radio silence. Now Republicans are pushing him through, unbothered by Donald Trump's complete disregard for the law that almost every one of them voted for just a few years ago. How times change.

Let me talk about Mr. Bell's supposed qualifications. Once in a while, I get called a privacy hawk, and I never consider that an insult. I have worked for decades, often with my Republican colleagues, to safeguard the privacy of Oregonians and all Americans. I have come to believe there are few places where privacy is more important than in the healthcare system. That is why this nomination is so dangerous for HHS.

Mr. Bell has made a career out of plastering people's private information in so many places, everywhere he can make it stick. When he was chief counsel for a select House panel, he made public a slew of information on reproductive healthcare providers and patients that he targeted with a sham investigation, all while they were being subjected to threats and physical harm.

Staff and even Members of Congress raised multiple concerns about his behavior during this investigation. He couldn't care a lick.

Those patients and providers saw a ninefold increase in violent threats during his investigation.

When my staff asked Mr. Bell what steps he took to protect the targets of this critical investigation, he replied: ``None.'' That is unacceptable.

I also note that the entire investigation was based on doctored, manipulated, and sometimes downright fabricated evidence, much of which he got from a personal connection.

This wasn't oversight; this was raw partisanship intended to target and intimidate reproductive health providers and the women seeking their care.

This is shocking behavior from the person nominated to oversee the privacy and protection of the private health information of Americans, but that is Mr. Bell's bread and butter. In questions for the record following his nomination hearing, he refused to admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election. An inspector general needs a firmer grasp of reality than this.

Even now, while he is nominated for a role that requires resolute independence, he is leading another sham investigation. This time, he is looking at ActBlue. This is nothing more than Donald Trump weaponizing the Federal Government to target political opponents with political enforcers. Instead of serving the American people, he is focused on carrying out the Trump agenda.

If my colleagues think that this blatant partisanship is going to stop if he is confirmed as an independent inspector general, they are betting on the wrong horse. When Mr. Bell came before the Finance Committee, he said that he ``will examine, evaluate, audit, and investigate to support the initiatives of President Trump and Secretary Kennedy.'' Last time I looked, an inspector general isn't there to follow the President's marching orders; they are there to make sure that the train stays on track and that nobody is out there pilfering the boxcars.

Mr. Bell has spent his whole career as a partisan operative. His confirmation will be a blank check to continue to make the healthcare system more expensive, more exclusionary, and less effective. It will all be done at the expense of the American people. This goes beyond the fox guarding the henhouse; it is giving the fox free rein to investigate henhouses from coast to coast. And while that might be the MO of this administration, it is dangerous for the American people, and it is exactly the opposite of what Congress set up inspectors general to do.

By confirming Mr. Bell, the Republicans send yet another strong message to Donald Trump that he can use the Federal Government to settle personal scores.

I urge my colleagues to respect the laws that we passed here and to respect the privacy, the decency, and the safety of patients and providers. I urge my colleagues to vote no on the dangerous Bell nomination.

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