During Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) questioned James O'Neill, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, about legalizing organ sales.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you. Senator Cortez Mastel. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the ranking
00:04member. To the nominees, congratulations on your nomination. Welcome to the family members that
00:10are here today and watching as well. Mr. O'Neill, let me follow up on some of the programming that
00:15I have concerns about at HHS that some of my colleagues have talked about. One of them is
00:19the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, which is the largest effort today to understand
00:25and reduce cancer risk among firefighters, risks that are especially severe for wildland
00:32firefighters that we see in Nevada who face exposure to dozens of known carcinogens on the job.
00:38But today, the program's website, if you go to that website, it states, and I quote,
00:44due to the reduction in force across NIOSH, which is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
00:49Health, firefighters can no longer enroll in the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer.
00:55Despite the urgent need, this program has been effectively halted due to staffing cuts at CDC.
01:03Enrollment is shut down, research is paused, and there's no timeline for resuming these operations.
01:09Now, the Trump administration claims that mass firings and reorganization won't impact HHS programs
01:15or functions, but as we can see, that's clearly not true. Despite these assurances, the Firefighter
01:20Cancer Registry is at a complete standstill. So, Mr. O'Neill, if confirmed, let me ask you this,
01:26how will you ensure that firefighter health and safety programs get back up and running without further delay?
01:32Thank you for the question, Senator. I agree with what I think is your premise that firefighters
01:37willingly take on an extremely risky career in order to save lives. I really respect them for that.
01:46It's important that they have good health care and that we understand the best way to care for them,
01:53the best way to prevent any diseases that are particularly prevalent in their profession.
01:58My understanding of the RIFs and the proposed RE-ORG is that the heads of the operating divisions decided
02:06which people would be RIFed. That seems to be a reasonable level of decision-making in terms of
02:14deciding which people would be let go. I believe the Secretary said, and I would certainly agree,
02:21that if there are any mistakes in the proposed RE-ORG or in the RIFs, that the department should correct them.
02:26And the Secretary also said that the goal of the proposed RE-ORG was to preserve the essential functions
02:32of the department, sometimes by combining duplicative functions into one place or related functions into one place.
02:38And I appreciate that. And listen, let me just say, I appreciate your value statement and your repeating
02:43what the Secretary said. But when you're in that position, now you get the discretion to decide whether
02:48this is an essential program. Do you think it's an essential program and it should be appropriately staffed?
02:52Senator, things related to research, it might be best located within CDC, they might be best located with NIH.
03:03I have not looked at the arguments for and con.
03:06Yeah, I didn't talk about the location. I just said, do you think it's an essential program for our firefighters
03:11and it should continue and be adequately staffed?
03:13Senator, I think it's important to do research to understand the best ways to mitigate the particular risk
03:19that firefighters face. And I have not had a chance to review the particulars of that program.
03:26Let me ask you this. In response, I heard you talking some comments with respect to Senator Grassley.
03:36Senator Grassley is an advocate for organ donation. In the past, you have stated that people should be free to sell their organs.
03:48And that it should be monetized. And I quote, there are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around unused.
03:55Do you still agree that kidney organs or just organs in general should be monetized and people should be free to sell them?
04:03Senator Grassley had a chance to work on organ donation policy when I was at HHS before.
04:09There were a lot of shocking facts around organ donation. One of them was that tens of thousands of people are dying while waiting on a waiting list.
04:16Yeah, I didn't ask about the status of organ donation. I just asked, do you still feel the same way in that statement?
04:22That people should be free to sell their organs? It's simply a yes or no question.
04:26Senator, there are many barriers in the law, as the last time I looked, that make it difficult for recipients of a kidney donation to compensate donors for the follow-up medical care.
04:38For their donation, I think it is reasonable to look at improving these policies so that someone who makes the very generous decision to donate a kidney or another organ will not suffer financially, will have their follow-up medical care, lost work and so forth, compensated by the recipient if the recipient is able to do so.
05:00Mr. Chair, my time is up. I will submit the rest of my questions for the record. Thank you.
05:05Thank you very much.