Lord, give our law lawmakers aing this upper for your words and a desire to apply your knowledge in their daily work. We pray in your merciful name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in the please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell the eyes of the nation are on the senate. For days now weve been engaged in intense, bipartisan talks to build emergency relief legislation on an historic scale to push resources to our Health Care Heroes and American Workers and families. Democrats and republicans sat down together. We crafted this version of the proposal together. This compromise package would push tens of billions of dollars to hospitals and Health Care Providers. It would send direct checks to
The committee will come to order. Id like to welcome everyone to this morning steering and today were going to consider the nomination of seema verma to serve as administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services. Welcome, ms. Verma, to the we are so happy to have you here and your family as well. I appreciate your willingness to lead this key agency at this critical time. I see that your family has joined you here today to lend support. I extend a warm welcome to all of them and to you as well. Cms is the Worlds Largest health insurer, covering over onethird of the u. S. Population through medicare and medicaid alone. It has a budget of over one trillion dollars and it processes over 1. 2 billion claims a year for Services Provided to some of our nations most vulnerable citizens. Ms. Verma, having dealt with cms extensively in your capacity as a consultant to numerous state Medicaid Programs, you know full well the challenges the agency deals with on daily basis. I suspec
Issued laptop computer was stolen. Secret service issued laptops contain multiple layers of security including full disk encryption and are not permitted to contain classified information. An investigation is ongoing, and the secret service is withholding additional comment until the facts are gathered. Kelly well, President Trump holds a working weekend at the winter white house in florida. And were just minutes away from Vice President mike pence, whos also in the Sunshine State this weekend, stepping up the administrations push for the gops health care overhaul. Ahead of a crucial vote in the house coming up next week. The president also blasting what hes calling fake news concerning his meeting and joint News Conference with germanys chancellor angal Merkel Angela merkel yesterday. Kristin fisher is live at maralago in palm beach with the very latest details. Reporter or hey, kelly. First, President Trump declined to shake the german chancellors hand x then at least two sources des