Here. And for your willi in ingness t serve in this important capacity. Mr. Azar certainly has his work cut out for him. Health and Human Services is a massive, Sprawling Department that oversees trillions of dollars in spending and liabilities and encompasses all areas of our Nations Health care system. As a result, if confirmed, mr. Azars work will impact the lives of every single american. Now, thats a big job. It requires knowledge, experience, and most important, strong leadership. Fortunately, our nominee brings all of this to the table, having nearly two decades of experience in the health care sector, including about six years working at the highest levels of hhs. During his time at hhs, mr. Azar play eed key roles in implementg new policies including Medicare Part d and the Medicare Advantage program. He was also a leader in hhs responses to the anthrax attacks shortly after 9 11, the sars and monkey pox crisis, and hurricane katrina, just to mention a few. If confirmed, mr. A
[ is distinct conversations ]. And live here this morning on c spann span 3, a discussion about transparency and oversight at the food and Drug Administration. Well be hearing from dr. Scott gottlieb starting off the conference. Introductions under way. Efforts to pass and implement the food safety modernization act, focus on medical devices, especially the potential of using the unique device identifier to improve monitoring devices throughout the product lifecycle. We have successfully worked on products 10 to courage innovation particularly around antibiotics and 10 to sure appropriate use of them. We focused on drug safety and transparency in the supply chain and especially on the safety of compounded drugs. Among other things, pew submitted transparency to the task force back in 2010 if the. They touch on some of the topics well be discussing today. Reading the background papers for todays meet regular mind med of a meeting we convened in a room directly above of us here a few yea
The committee will come to order. Welcome everybody to this mornings hearing. Today the committee will consider and examine the nomination of vista alex cesar to serve as a sect of health and Human Services, one of the most aboard jobs in any government anywhere in the world. Id like to welcome mr. Azar to the finance committee this morning. Thank you for being here and for your willingness to serve in this important capacity. Mr. Azar certainly has his work cut out for him. Health and Human Services is a massive, Sprawling Department that oversees trillions of dollars in spending and liabilities and encompasses all areas of our Nations Health care system. As a result, if confirmed, mr. Azars work will impact the lives of every single american. Thats a big job. It requires knowledge, experience, and, most important, strong leadership. Fortunately, our nominee brings all of this to the table, having nearly two decades of experience in the health care sector, including about six years wo
Change. You mentioned the engagement a number of times today. With the outreach to iran and the outreach to cuba, are we looking at a burgeoning doctrine engagement drama or doctrine of engagement with other leaders and other regimes for the last year and a half of his presidency . Well, the president i think has drawn a pretty clear line between the relationship between the u. S. And cuba and the relationship between the United States and iran. United states continues to have significant concerns with iranian behavior including irans support of terrorism irans continued menacing of israel irans support for proxies that engage in destablizing activity throughout the middle east. So the approach the president has taken to iran is very different than the president s approach to our relations with cuba. I do think as the president mentioned in his address to the nation on tuesday, that the one common principle that i think might be here is that the United States, he quoted president kenne
In the first chapter was what we call conservatism is really americanism. We have probably have been a lot better off if we make this whole idea, what were try to conserve all those values, principles and ideas that made this country so unique and free and prosperous. I think thats the best place to start. What is a mechanism to you . Guest its a great point and thats exactly my point in the book. We have a superficial discussion about the mechanism and american principles. Lets figure out what americanism is. People talk about populism, nationalism, conservatism, and so i researched, researched, researched when i dug into this and the founders told me where to go. Ithey told me to look at aristotle and cicerone and sydney and lock and even some of their contemporaries, adam smith and edmund burke and so forth. And what does the term americanism mean . And so the first chapter as you know, i spent time on that and whats interesting is even the didnt agree in every single nuance there w