Congressional Testimony
Congressional Testimony
Here's a look at documents involving congressional testimony and member statements
Featured Stories
House Education & Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Allen Issues Opening Statement at Hearing on Employee Benefits Security Administration
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- Rep. Rick Allen, R-Georgia, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, released the following opening statement from an April 16, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration":* * *
Today's hearing will examine the policies and priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) under the leadership of Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz. The Committee is focused on protecting workers, lowering costs, and restoring accountability ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- Rep. Rick Allen, R-Georgia, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, released the following opening statement from an April 16, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration": * * * Today's hearing will examine the policies and priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) under the leadership of Assistant Secretary Daniel Aronowitz. The Committee is focused on protecting workers, lowering costs, and restoring accountabilityin our benefits system. Simply put: retirement and health benefits must actually work for American families. Today, we will hear about the ways the Trump administration is advancing these priorities.
EBSA is responsible for regulating employer-provided benefit plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This includes the oversight of millions of retirement and health benefit plans covering 156 million Americans and holding approximately $14 trillion in assets.
The retirement savings that Americans have worked so hard for should never be put at risk by politically motivated mismanagement. Retirement plans should be about returns, not politics. The Trump administration has taken action to reverse harmful Biden-era policies so workers' retirement savings are invested to prioritize maximum returns instead of notoriously underperforming political or social causes. My bill, the Protecting Prudent Investment of Retirement Savings Act, does exactly this, and I look forward to hearing what further action can be taken by EBSA.
Too often, heath care prices are hidden from both patients and employers, making true competition impossible as costs soar.
Competition is the only way to bring down costs. Worse, such high costs and regulatory burdens make it harder for employers to offer competitive health care to their employees. Employers should have access to health plan data so they can design plans that meet employee needs while lowering health care costs. This Committee will continue to prioritize legislation that expands health care and billing transparency and ends abusive pricing and kickback schemes while working to expand access to high-quality, affordable health care benefits.
Finally, we must reign in burdensome and costly investigations. While oversight of employee benefit plans is necessary, it must be targeted, efficient, and focused on real violations. Under the Biden administration, EBSA abused its authority by conducting lengthy and aimless investigations paid for by taxpayers and employers. This Committee has advanced legislation targeting this very problem, and I look forward to hearing what steps the Trump administration is taking to end these frivolous investigations.
Mr. Aronowitz, you have been a leader in employee benefits plan management for decades. I look forward to hearing from you about the work EBSA has done to protect workers' health and retirement plans and ensure these benefits actually work for American families.
* * *
Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/allen_os_4.16.26_.pdf
House Education & Workforce Committee Chairman Walberg Issues Opening Statement at Hearing on HHS Policies
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following opening statement from an April 17, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services":* * *
At a time when Americans are facing rising health care costs, declining public trust, and worsening rates of chronic disease, strong leadership at HHS is more important than ever. Under Secretary Kennedy, HHS is taking bold and decisive action to Make America Healthy Again.
Health care is a critical part of the ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, released the following opening statement from an April 17, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services": * * * At a time when Americans are facing rising health care costs, declining public trust, and worsening rates of chronic disease, strong leadership at HHS is more important than ever. Under Secretary Kennedy, HHS is taking bold and decisive action to Make America Healthy Again. Health care is a critical part of theequation. Yet for too many families, the cost of care continues to rise while transparency remains out of reach. Patients and employers are too often left in the dark, unable to make informed choices about price and quality. That is unacceptable.
Americans deserve clear and upfront pricing that will help drive competition and lower costs. This Committee remains focused on strengthening transparency and ensuring the system works for patients, not against them. And we are glad to have the partnership of this HHS to help accomplish those goals.
But access to health care is only one piece of the puzzle. Health begins long before a patient enters a doctor's office. It starts with nutrition, prevention, and daily choices. Under Secretary Kennedy's leadership, HHS has righted the food pyramid and delivered scientifically sound Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These are critical steps toward building a stronger foundation for public health, particularly for children. This is also an area where the Committee has led. We restored access to healthy, full-fat dairy in federal child nutrition programs-- ensuring children receive the nutrients they need to grow and thrive.
Health is also shaped by environments in which we live. Strengthening high-quality early childhood education and care programs that working parents rely on--and protecting them from waste, fraud, and abuse-- helps create a culture of learning and care where our children can thrive.
At the same time, restoring focus and accountability in these programs is critical to earning the public's trust. Taxpayer dollars should support children and families, not advance ideological initiatives. This is particularly true of the DEI-driven mandates and gender ideology that have saturated our society. Policies that promote or subsidize irreversible medical interventions on minors raise serious concerns, both medically and ethically. Sex-rejecting procedures and mutilating chemical treatments are an abominable use of federal taxpayer dollars and tear at the very fabric of American society. I am very glad to see HHS taking steps to combat this and ensure that the well-being of children, not politics, remains the focus.
Finally, I want to commend the Department for also making America fiscally healthy again. The Department's budget proposal reins in a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy by restructuring HHS to refocus on core principles--all while saving American taxpayers $1.8 billion every year. In other words, HHS is doing more with less. That is exactly the kind of governance the American people expect and deserve.
At the end of the day, this is about people: families trying to afford care, parents trying to raise healthy children, and communities striving for a better future. The policies we shape here have real consequences in their lives. We have a responsibility to get this right. I appreciate Secretary Kennedy's willingness to take on these challenges, and I look forward to working together to build a healthier, stronger future for every American.
* * *
Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/walberg_opening_statement_4.17.26.pdf
HHS Secretary Kennedy Testifies Before House Education & Workforce Committee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Education and Workforce Committee released the following testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from an April 17, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services":* * *
The mission of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS" or the "Department") is to promote and protect the health and well-being of the American people. This mission serves as the foundation for the Department's efforts to strengthen public health systems, support medical research, improve access ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Education and Workforce Committee released the following testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from an April 17, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services": * * * The mission of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS" or the "Department") is to promote and protect the health and well-being of the American people. This mission serves as the foundation for the Department's efforts to strengthen public health systems, support medical research, improve accessto quality health care, and provide essential services to individuals, families, and communities across the country. This past year, under President Trump and my leadership, the Department has made tremendous strides in accomplishing its mission.
The Administration continues to align the budget with the proposed reorganization. The structural reforms will reduce duplication, improve accountability, and maximize the impact of limited resources. By consolidating overlapping functions, strengthening prevention-focused programs, eliminating fraud and abuse, and targeting investments toward primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, substance use prevention and treatment, environmental health, and workforce development, HHS aims to slow long-term cost growth while improving health outcomes. These reforms are designed to ensure that federal health dollars are spent more efficiently.
MAHA WINS
We cannot hope to make America great again without first making Americans healthy again.
The bedrock of health--the key to reversing the chronic disease epidemic--is nutrition.
* This year we released new Dietary Guidelines that emphasize real, whole, nutrient-dense foods. The vast majority of chronic diseases in this country are reversible or preventable through changes in nutrition. But dietary interventions have been underutilized. They have also been stifled by poor guidelines from the old food pyramid and MyPlate: Americans were steered toward empty calories from refined breads and pastas and told to shun full-fat natural dairy products. We flipped the pyramid on its head. A diet centered around meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, citrus fruits and berries, root vegetables, and fiber-rich whole grains can dramatically reverse the disease burden on this country. It's a diet built around whole foods--real, nutrient-dense, single-ingredient foods that you can find at any supermarket. And for Americans who struggle to find these staples in their communities, we are working with the Department of Agriculture to expand stocking requirements for healthy foods to meet that need.
* We are also making sure that the next generation of doctors is being taught nutrition. Medical students across this country have historically reported receiving one or two hours of nutrition education each year. We cannot in good conscience send physicians to treat diet-driven illnesses when they do not feel confident advising their patients on how to eat. So, we've partnered with the Department of Education to secure voluntary commitments from more than 50 medical schools to require 40 hours of nutrition education, or a 40-hour competency equivalent, for all medical students starting this fall. These commitments are science-based and consensus-driven and are a model for how this Administration is working with national experts to address our chronic disease epidemic.
* We are holding baby formula manufacturers to a high standard. Good nutrition starts in the womb, and steady access to a balanced nutrient profile during a child's formative years is essential to proper brain development. So, we launched Operation Stork Speed to increase labeling transparency, address gaps in infant formula research, expand the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") testing protocols for infant formula, and are undertaking the first comprehensive review of infant formula nutrients in over 30 years to ensure our babies are getting the highest quality supplemental feed possible at such a critical period of growth.
* We are removing petroleum-based dyes from our children's food. The research is clear, and we have known for a long time that these dyes are harmful to children's health.
What's unprecedented is the outpouring of voluntary cooperation from industry to phase out these dyes. To make the transition to healthier options as seamless as possible, the FDA has approved a host of naturally derived alternative colors, including from fruit and vegetable sources.
* We are initiating the post-market review of unexamined food additives. The GRAS standard-- "Generally Recognized As Safe"-- for decades has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with secret safety data, to be introduced into our food supply without notification or oversight by the FDA or the public. Manufacturers were expected to test and vouch for the safety of their own ingredients. They have taken advantage of that loophole for long enough. This year, FDA plans to act.
Under the Biden Administration, the disparity between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' in this country widened more than ever before. High inflation, overregulation, and unchecked illegal immigration drove up health care costs for middle class Americans.
At HHS, we are doing everything we can to make quality health care accessible and affordable to Americans.
* We have negotiated "Most Favored Nation" drug prices for Americans. For too long, America has subsidized the development of lifechanging therapeutics, serving as the world's incubator for breakthrough drugs. But when those drugs come to market, people in other countries have been able to purchase them for a fraction of the cost that Americans pay, and we are tired of being taken advantage of. Thanks to President Trump, that's no longer the case. We have negotiated on behalf of the American people to bring their costs for the best drugs in the world in line with what other countries are paying. President Trump and I call on Congress to codify into law this historic framework for prescription drug prices to ensure the rest of the world pays their fair share and Americans never get ripped off again.
* We are empowering patients with clear, accurate, transparent healthcare pricing.
Americans were promised a free market--but when hospitals and health insurers hide the price of care until after the procedure is complete, consumers cannot shop and compare. The market is not free if prices are not disclosed upfront. That is why, consistent with the President's direction, we finalized changes to hospital price transparency regulations that ensure patients have the information they need to make well-informed healthcare decisions by requiring the disclosure of actual prices, and by making sure that pricing information is easily comparable across hospitals. We also proposed new transparency in coverage regulations for insurance companies that make negotiated prices accessible and usable for consumers.
* We have empowered Americans with access to real-time prescription drug price information. In October of last year, a final rule went into effect ensuring that health care providers using certified health IT systems are able to submit prior authorizations electronically, select drugs consistent with a patient's insurance coverage, and exchange electronic prescription information with pharmacies and insurance plans no later than the end of next year. This overhaul of the prior authorization system improves patient outcomes, reduces provider burden, and gives Americans full transparency at the point of care so that they can take advantage of the free market--window-shopping for the best prices instead of getting disoriented and hoodwinked by a marketplace that is deliberately made hard to navigate.
* We have taken major steps to streamline the development of biosimilar medicines.
Biosimilars are essentially "generic" versions of biologic drugs, which can be powerful treatments for many diseases, including autoimmune diseases and cancer providing more affordable treatment options compared to biologics medicines which are often prohibitively expensive. Despite accounting for just 5% of prescriptions, biologics account for 51% of drug spending. Changes by the FDA will reduce the cost to develop these lower cost options by millions of dollars and get them to patients years sooner, dramatically reducing drug prices, expanding patient options, and driving actual market competition.
Part of making quality care accessible and affordable means going after the people who are taking advantage of our health care system, leaving our most vulnerable--the people it was designed to serve--out in the cold.
Across HHS we are holding those bad actors accountable, cutting them out of our system and installing new safeguards to ensure that they never come back.
* We are doing our part to fight the war on fraud by rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse in our Medicare and Medicaid programs. Prior administrations allowed our systems to be taken advantage of by people they were never meant to serve. In many instances, the Biden Administration even enacted policies that made it easier for criminals to commit fraud and harder for states to combat it. Every dollar diverted to a fraudulent claim is a dollar unavailable to fund legitimate care for Americans: preventive screenings, mental health services, rural hospitals, and lifesaving medications. That's why we have catapulted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") into a new era of integrity with modern tools, tighter oversight, and announced a nationwide call to action for Americans to support fraud prevention through the CRUSH initiative: "Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare." In fact, we have joined forces with 28 states across the political spectrum in a CMS-State Tax Fraud Partnership to strengthen state-federal enforcement against fraudsters. We are replacing the old "pay and chase" model with a real-time "detect and deploy" strategy, using advanced AI tools to identify fraud instantly and stop improper payments before they go out the door.
* We are ending the abuse of children through sex-rejecting procedures.
Impressionable youth questioning their sex deserve compassion, attention, and care.
Instead, some of these children have been exposed to invasive, irreversible sex-rejecting procedures and castrating chemicals through our health care system. We released the most comprehensive peer-reviewed report to date on the harms of these procedures last November. The science is clear: these interventions risk lasting physical and psychological damage to vulnerable young people. CMS has issued proposed rulemaking that seeks to protect children by withholding Medicare and Medicaid federal funds from any hospital that performs sex-rejecting procedures on minors and prohibiting federal Medicaid funds from paying for any sex-rejecting procedures performed on children. The FDA issued warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers of breast binders--medical devices--formally notifying them that marketing their products to children with gender dysphoria is not in compliance with FDA regulations and requiring prompt corrective actions. We also released a public health message to inform health care providers, families, and policymakers that the evidence does not support claims that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries are safe and effective treatments for pediatric gender dysphoria.
* We are restoring dignity and accountability to the organ donation process. Patients and families should not be pressured by organ procurement organizations into making life-or-death decisions that favor the financial interests of those organizations. We have released clear guidance across this Department preventing such behaviors and reiterate that organ donation begins after death is confirmed--not before. We also decertified the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency organ procurement organization after uncovering years of unsafe practices, poor training, chronic under-performance, under-staffing, and paperwork errors. The American people deserve a higher standard of care.
Gold-standard care starts with gold-standard science.
We are bringing agency recommendations into alignment with the best scientific evidence.
* We have removed black box warnings on certain hormone replacement therapy products for menopausal women. Use of these therapies plummeted in the early 2000s due to the prejudicial effect of a warning label FDA applied following a study that connected the products to a statistically non-significant increase in the risk of breast cancer diagnosis in a study of women with a median age more than a decade beyond the onset of menopause. Women deserve an honest, comprehensive assessment of the science so they can make informed decisions about what they put in their bodies, and removing the blanket black box warnings from these products fulfilled that.
* We have sustained funding for the AI-backed Childhood Cancer Data Initiative at the NIH at $100 million. This continued funding will accelerate the development of improved diagnostics, treatments, and prevention strategies for pediatric cancer. Our children are our future. Every day that they spend burdened by this modern phenomenon of pediatric cancer is an avoidable tragedy. We can and will get to the bottom of this crisis, and we are bringing in private-sector partners to apply advanced artificial intelligence tools to get us there faster.
* We are shining a light on invisible illnesses. Last year, we convened a roundtable of Lyme disease patients, clinicians, and researchers to vindicate in a public way what they already knew: chronic, multisystem tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome are real, and we need to accelerate innovations in how we understand, diagnose, and treat these conditions. We also announced the renewal of the LymeX Innovation Accelerator initiative, a $10 million public-private partnership that will advance AI tools to support earlier and more accurate detection across stages of infection. Americans with Lyme disease are sick of the gaslighting; we're treating them with the dignity they deserve and giving them answers.
* This Administration endeavors to put the truth back at the center of scientific inquiry, where it has always belonged. By freeing our experts from the constraints of dogma and censorship, we have empowered them to focus on making cutting-edge advancements in medicine, research methodology, and regulatory science.
These advancements are already delivering cures to the American people, and they have laid the tracks for accelerated innovation.
* We are dramatically reducing review times for drug and biological product applications. The Commissioner's National Priority Voucher (CNPV) pilot program, which we announced last year, uses a collaborative tumor board-style review process to accelerate review and approval of products that align with U.S. national health priorities: crisis response, breakthrough therapies, large unmet medical needs, domestic supply chain resilience, and affordability. In February, FDA granted approval to a new lung cancer drug submitted through this voucher program just over a month earlier because it showed incredible promise in the clinical trial data. In March, we approved a treatment for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior line of therapy. This decision was issued just 55 days after filing. The historical precedent for approvals is 10-12 months.
* For patients with ultra-rare diseases who cannot afford to wait, we are accelerating the development of individualized therapies. This is done through our new plausible mechanism framework, which cuts unnecessary red tape, aligns regulation with modern biology, and clears a path for breakthrough treatments to reach the patients who need them most.
* We are improving screening for rare diseases in children. My uncle once said that, "although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect." By adding Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Metachromatic Leukodystrophy to the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel for states to follow, we can give every child a fair chance at timely care. We're also giving parents the information they need to make educated decisions about their children's health.
Through a range of programs and partnerships, HHS works diligently to address the varied health needs of the nation and ensure that Americans have the resources necessary to live healthier and more productive lives. Both President Trump and I treat this responsibility with the utmost seriousness and consider it a critical national priority. We remain committed to ensuring that the Department's programs and initiatives effectively serve the public while ensuring maximum efficiency and transparency.
The FY 2027 President's Budget supports the Department's mission to promote the health and well-being of all Americans and reflects our legislative proposal to Congress. HHS proposes $111.1 billion in discretionary budget authority for FY 2027. The budget demonstrates the Trump Administration's commitment to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA).
FIGHTING THE CHRONIC DISEASE EPIDEMIC
The United States devotes an extraordinary share of federal resources to health care, yet outcomes continue to deteriorate, driven largely by the preventable chronic disease epidemic affecting Americans of every age and demographic. Rising rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, respiratory illness, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders continue to place sustained pressure on Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs. Americans are getting sicker while paying more. These dangerous trends threaten us, our economy, our way of life, and our national security. While the current trajectory is unsustainable, the Administration's MAHA agenda provides solutions to make Americans healthy again and radically transform the health of our nation.
Fulfilling the MAHA agenda requires transformative change in our federal health programs. The Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) will combine the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and several centers and programs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into a single, unified entity. This consolidation will reduce administrative duplication and improve coordination of health resources. AHA will focus its $14.7 billion discretionary budget on high-impact priority areas, including primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, HIV/AIDS, and workforce development.
The Administration continues to align the budget with my aspiration to better leverage the skills and knowledge of those delivering on the HHS mission. By reducing duplication, improving accountability, and maximizing the impact of resources, HHS can reduce silos that lead to inconsistent guidance, prevent collaboration, and misalign efforts to deliver optimal health outcomes and services for the American people. By consolidating overlapping functions, strengthening prevention-focused programs, and targeting investments toward primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, substance use prevention and treatment, and workforce development, HHS aims to slow long-term cost growth while improving health outcomes. The budget proposes $14.7 billion in discretionary funding for these high impact priority areas, including $3.5 billion for primary care, $1.1 billion for maternal and child health, $6.7 billion for mental health and substance abuse treatment, and $393 million to strengthen the healthcare workforce. Through our reforms and a more focused approach to the operations of the Department, we aim to deliver higher quality care for Americans at lower costs.
Behavioral health conditions are a major contributor to chronic illness, disability, and rising healthcare costs. We must ensure our healthcare system addresses the root causes of disease rather than just managing its symptoms. HHS investments focus on strengthening prevention, expanding timely access to care, and shifting from crisis-driven interventions toward more effective, community-based solutions. This approach improves outcomes, supports recovery, and reduces long-term costs to federal health programs.
To support the Great American Recovery, the budget includes $6.7 billion for mental health and substance use disorder services. Funding will enable states and tribes to address behavioral health issues through approaches tailored to their local communities. The budget proposes two new flexible programs, the Behavioral Health Innovation Block Grant and the Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder for Native Americans program, to expand evidence-based practices and innovative approaches to improve access and care. Addiction begins in isolation and ends in reconnection. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we are bringing Americans suffering from addiction out of the shadows and back into their communities.
Food safety investments are essential to preventing avoidable exposure-related illnesses that contribute to rising rates of chronic disease, particularly among children. Failures in prevention and oversight shift costs to families, healthcare systems, and federal health programs, eroding public confidence in the food supply. Targeted funding proposed in the budget strengthens accountability and transparency across the food system, reduces preventable health spending, and supports a sustained shift toward prevention rather than costly medical intervention. The budget ensures FDA has the resources to protect the nation's food supply and prevent food safety risks.
The budget provides $57 million to help remove harmful chemicals from foods, reduce toxic elements in foods eaten by children, and address contamination and supply issues in infant formula. These funds will also support new tools to estimate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels in food-producing animals and improve the safety review of new ingredients. The FDA will expand public transparency, review safer natural alternatives, and support the move away from petroleum-based synthetic food dyes. The budget also includes additional funding for the CDC's Food Safety program to improve surveillance of food and waterborne outbreaks and to advance methods to measure microplastics in the human body and better understand their health impacts.
STRENGTHENING SERVICES TO TRIBES
HHS is committed to fulfilling our responsibility to provide quality healthcare services to more than 2.8 million eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives through the Indian Health Service (IHS). We are committed to upgrading IHS facilities, upholding Tribal sovereignty, and improving healthcare outcomes. During my time as Secretary, I have made this commitment a top priority and continue to meet, listen and consult with Tribal nations on the issues that matter most to them.
The budget provides an additional $1 billion for IHS in FY 2027, including funding to continue high-quality service delivery, staff newly opened facilities, and provide services to newly recognized Tribes. The budget also invests $5 million for oversight of IHS-operated hospitals to ensure they deliver safe, reliable, and effective care. The budget provides funding for IHS' Health Information Technology Modernization to replace aging legacy systems with a unified platform that improves efficiency, reduces administrative burden on providers, and enhances continuity of care. This investment will ensure IHS facilities are better equipped to deliver highquality healthcare services efficiently and effectively.
The budget also includes advance appropriations for IHS for fiscal 2028. I heard loud and clear from tribal leaders that advance appropriations are critical to ensuring continuity of care across IHS, particularly during federal funding disruptions. Advance appropriations provide IHS with predictable, stable funding that allows facilities to maintain operations, retain staff, and plan effectively across fiscal years, regardless of temporary disruptions in the appropriations process.
In addition, the budget invests $14 million to launch a new Tribal Health Quality Initiative within the Office of Strategy to improve health outcomes for American Indian and Alaskan Native people. This initiative will leverage data collection systems, support quality improvement, and enhance patient safety research for tribal populations.
MAINTAINING AMERICA'S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The United States continues to face serious and expensive health challenges that have not been solved through incremental research. Chronic disease, cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, and emerging health threats place a growing burden on American families, employers, and taxpayers.
China is investing in biomedical research and, since 2022, more Phase I first in human clinical trials are conducted in China than in the U.S. To begin to reverse that trend, meet the goals of the MAHA agenda, the Administration supports a research and innovation approach that prioritizes speed, accountability, and results. Investments in this area are critical to strengthening domestic innovation, supporting American jobs, and reinforcing U.S. leadership in science and technology.
The budget invests $41.2 billion in NIH, to support gold standard science, maintain global competitiveness and national security, and to maximize the impact of NIH research on the American people. The budget advances critical Administration priorities to address the chronic disease epidemic, identify biomarkers for aging and disease, implement scalable and secure datasharing frameworks, and cultivate innovative research initiatives through the NIH Common Fund. The budget also furthers NIH's commitment to restore trust in biomedical research by accelerating efforts to ensure results are replicable and reproducible, expanding the use of nonanimal models, and enhancing the safety and security of NIH research. NIH continues to emphasize that robust biosafety and biosecurity practices are essential for both promoting and protecting critical, life-saving research. NIH will focus funding on scientific research across all the United States rather than political agendas.
In addition, the budget provides $945 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to accelerate the development of breakthrough solutions that can meaningfully improve health and reduce long-term healthcare costs.
HHS is using every tool it has to increase domestic manufacturing of the health care products Americans rely on every day. FDA has launched pilot programs to expedite the review of generic drugs made in the U.S. and provide information early for those building new manufacturing plants in the U.S. As part of President's Trump negotiations to lower drug prices, companies have committed over $350 billion to increase drug manufacturing throughout the U.S. And it is not just private companies. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has provided funding to make and stockpile vital key starting materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients right here in the U.S.
RESTORING THE NATION'S PREPAREDNESS CAPABILITIES
The budget supports a resilient health security infrastructure that protects Americans during the most critical moments of a public health emergency. The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) is a critical national asset that ensures lifesaving medical countermeasures are available when emergencies overwhelm state, local, tribal, and territorial health systems. Many of these medical countermeasures are unique to the stockpile and not available elsewhere, making the SNS an essential resource for both large-scale emergencies and smaller targeted responses.
The budget prioritizes funding for the Strategic National Stockpile at $1 billion to strengthen national preparedness and protect public health. ASPR will continue to replenish and rotate critical supplies, modernize storage and distribution capabilities, and improve coordination with public and private partners. These investments ensure the nation can respond quickly to emergencies, control threats, and save lives.
The budget includes an additional $45 million for CDC's Biothreat Radar System, a layered early warning system that expands innovative metagenomic detection approaches and strengthens outbreak signal detection. With these resources, CDC will continue to deploy innovative metagenomic tools to efficiently detect and analyze multiple pathogens from a single clinical or community sample; expand traveler-based genomic surveillance (TGS) to improve detection of pathogens with international origins and assess patterns of global spread; integrate complex data into a unified analytic platform to accelerate automated outbreak and signal detection and translate data into actionable intelligence; and, enhance data sharing and partnerships with federal and jurisdictional partners to support modernized infectious disease investigation and coordinated preparedness and response. CDC launched the integration of the Biothreat Radar program in 2025 with additional resources dedicated to metagenomic testing, data analytics, and the Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) and TGS programs. This request sustains the ongoing program implementation to ensure an early warning system that will protect Americans for years to come.
MODERNIZING INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS
HHS must operate as efficiently as possible to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. We are continuing to streamline the Department's functions and modernize its infrastructure to ensure resources are used in the most effective manner possible. Through the use of artificial intelligence and shared services, we have already achieved great results and are continuing to work to modernize the many aging and outdated systems in the Department.
America invests hundreds of billions of dollars each year in Medicare and Medicaid, yet these programs depend on decades-old technology ill-equipped to meet the Administration's patientfirst, accountable care goals. CMS Program Management is taking bold steps to modernize the nation's digital health ecosystem with a focus on empowering Medicare beneficiaries through greater access to innovative health technologies. The budget funds $3.7 billion through CMS.
The discretionary component of this funding includes the investment to begin modernization of the Medicare claims processing systems. Medicare relies on aging, fragmented technology that is costly to maintain, difficult to adapt, and increasingly difficult to secure. The FY 2027 budget will provide funding to support initial-stage architecture for a commercial off-the-shelf platform that would combine the four legacy systems into a single, modern system.
CMS also plans to address critical infrastructure gaps that limit progress toward a digital health technology ecosystem. In FY 2027, CMS expects to make progress toward standardized identity verification processes, modernized provider directory systems, and interoperable data exchange between CMS and external health technology solutions. To protect vulnerable beneficiaries, the budget proposes $487 million for state survey and certification. These resources are critical for provider oversight to ensure nursing homes and hospices in every state meet or exceed Medicare's safety and quality of care standards. We believe it is important to prioritize limited resources toward those areas that pose an increased risk to individuals' health and safety.
The budget also includes $424 million to support infrastructure costs and improve the condition of buildings at FDA-owned locations. The FDA relies on optimally functioning facilities to foster scientific innovation, improve healthcare, expand access to medical products, and advance public health. FDA will also continue to expand the inspection of facilities by leveraging state inspection resources to complement FDA inspections.
Similarly, the success of NIH requires safe, modern research facilities that support missioncritical biomedical research. The NIH's specialized laboratories and research infrastructure must be maintained to prevent disruptions, protect staff and participants, and avoid higher long-term costs. NIH has continued to demonstrate how modernized, data-driven, and human-relevant science can translate into improved health outcomes. The Administration is investing $350 million to maintain and modernize these facilities in a cost-effective manner, reducing emergency repairs, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring NIH can continue advancing gold standard scientific research for the American people.
While healthcare standards and technologies have advanced, many IHS facilities remain outdated, driving higher maintenance costs, operational inefficiencies, and deferred care. The FY 2027 budget invests $742 million to modernize IHS facilities as a cost-effective strategy to reduce long-term operating costs, lower maintenance backlogs, and improve space utilization.
These investments support modern care delivery and more efficient staffing models to enable IHS to better meet its statutory obligations to Tribal communities. By working together with Tribal leaders, providers, and families, we are restoring trust and driving the mission to Make America Healthy Again in Indian Country.
We are modernizing the Department's technology foundation to deliver faster, smarter, and more effective services to the American people. We were the first federal agency to deploy ChatGPT at scale across the enterprise, equipping our workforce with advanced AI tools that are already improving efficiency, accelerating analysis, and reducing administrative burden. We continue to prioritize rapid adoption of emerging capabilities while at the same time modernizing existing systems and processes. For example, we have successfully replaced a decades-old COBOLbased payroll system with a secure, cloud-based platform that automated processes that once took hours into minutes. The modernized payroll system delivers a scalable, interoperable solution that positions us to align with OPM's broader human resource modernization efforts.
We have also dramatically improved collaboration across the Department by integrating email and identity systems for the first time. This enables seamless communication and stronger enterprise-wide security. We are now standardizing and strengthening cybersecurity tools and operations across the Department, which will enable a more unified, consistent security posture that improves threat detection, response, and protection of sensitive data in an increasingly complex threat environment. Finally, we are laser-focused on transforming how technology is managed and delivered across the enterprise. To drive this transformation, we are elevating the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to a standalone division. This will empower OCIO to drive centralized strategy, strengthen governance, and break down long-standing data silos, driving innovation, increasing accountability, and delivering measurable results for the Department and the people it serves.
The President's FY 2027 budget for HHS recognizes the importance of focusing government spending on programs that work and reforming our nation's healthcare programs for a fastchanging world. This Budget recognizes that securing America's future requires sound fiscal management and responsible decisions about our priorities. If we are serious about fulfilling HHS's mission of enhancing and protecting the well-being of all Americans, we must embrace the bold innovation and direction championed by the President's Budget to Make America Healthy Again.
But these historic reforms will only Make America Healthy Again if they are made permanent.
And they cannot be made permanent without your help. In his State of the Union address, President Trump asked Congress to codify this Administration's efforts to lower healthcare costs for Americans. So, I implore you now:
Pass President Trump's Great Healthcare Plan to:
* Lower Drug Prices.
* Codify the President's Most Favored Nation drug price negotiations, so that Americans continue to have access to prescription drugs at the same low prices other countries pay.
* Make more verified safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase. This will lower healthcare costs and increase consumer choice by strengthening price transparency, increasing competition, and reducing the need for costly and time-consuming doctor's visits.
Lower Insurance Premiums.
* Stop sending big insurance companies billions in extra taxpayer-funded subsidy payments and instead send that money directly to eligible Americans to allow them to buy the health insurance of their choice.
* Fund a cost-sharing reduction program for healthcare plans which would save taxpayers at least $36 billion and reduce the most common Obamacare plan premiums by over 10%.
* End kickbacks from pharmacy benefit managers to the large brokerage middlemen that deceptively raise the cost of health insurance.
Hold Big Insurance Companies Accountable.
* Require health insurance companies to publish rate and coverage comparisons upfront on their websites in plain English--not industry jargon--so consumers can make better insurance purchasing decisions.
* Require health insurance companies to publish the percentage of their revenues that are paid out to claims versus overhead costs and profits on their websites
* Require health insurers to publish the percentage of insurance claims they reject and average wait times for routine care on their websites.
Maximize Price Transparency.
* Require any healthcare provider or insurer who accepts Medicare or Medicaid to publicly and prominently post their pricing and fees to avoid surprise medical bills.
Additionally, HHS is asking Congress to support additional efforts to:
* Protect children from irreversible harm. Prohibiting Medicaid federal funding for sex-rejecting procedures performed on minors and barring hospitals that accept Medicare or Medicaid from performing these procedures on minors.
* End deceptive advertising practices. Close in statute the "adequate provision" loophole that allowed drug advertisers to lie to consumers.
* Restore trust in our food supply. Go beyond what FDA can do to address the GRAS loophole.
* Hold bad actors accountable. Build on Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and CMS' new fraud-fighting initiatives to make sure that non-citizens and scammers do not take advantage of the American people's generosity and trust under a future Administration.
Without these changes, we will have lost a generational opportunity to make healthcare more affordable, restore trust in our institutions, end the chronic disease crisis, and punish the bad actors who profited from the poisoning, sickening, and exploitation of our most vulnerable.
This is an opportunity the American people cannot afford to miss. So, don't let it pass. Join us.
Together, we can leave a lasting impact on public health and truly Make America Healthy Again.
* * *
Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhs_secretary_fy_2027_budget_testimonyedwf.pdf
Hawai'i Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species Program Manager Martin Testifies Before House Natural Resources Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries released the following testimony by Christy Martin, program manager of the Hawai'i Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Honolulu, from an April 16, 2026, hearing on the National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Team Act (H.R. 4219):* * *
Aloha Chair Hageman, Vice Chair Ezell, Ranking Member Hoyle, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today in strong support of HR 4219, the National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Team ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries released the following testimony by Christy Martin, program manager of the Hawai'i Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Honolulu, from an April 16, 2026, hearing on the National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Team Act (H.R. 4219): * * * Aloha Chair Hageman, Vice Chair Ezell, Ranking Member Hoyle, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today in strong support of HR 4219, the National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike TeamAct of 2025. My name is Christy Martin and I am the program manager of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS) under the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. I have worked on invasive species issues for more than 25 years, serving with the Maui Invasive Species Committee and then shifting to a statewide and regional focus with CGAPS. Over the years I participated in multiple rapid response operations including coconut rhinoceros beetle, Rapid Ohia Death, a fungal disease caused by Ceratocystis species that has killed large numbers of native ohia trees across Hawai'i, little fire ant, and even species invading our reefs such as pulse coral, an invasive soft coral popular in the aquarium trade. My work has included on-the-ground control actions, planning, securing funding, outreach, and education. From 2022-2025 I also had the privilege of serving as Vice Chair and then Chair of the Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC) guiding the development of white papers and advice on requested invasive species topics for consideration by the National Invasive Species Council.
The invasive species problem in Hawai'i is very serious and the impacts go far beyond native species. It impacts our ability grow our own food, it prevents market access for our crops, and is decimating our high-value native hardwood forests, outdoor activities, and quality of life. In the early 1990s, two reports documented the significant problem of invasive species in Hawai'i, owing largely to gaps in prevention, rapid response, and pest management capacity and programs. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) produced one of these studies and stated that Hawai'i's "alien pest problem", as it was known then, as, "the worst in the nation." CGAPS was formed shortly thereafter as a partnership of agencies and non-governmental organizations whose goal is to identify and fix the gaps in Hawai'i's prevention, response, and control policies and programs, and to raise public awareness.
OTA's assessment was accurate. A risk assessment conducted in 2001 by the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity of incoming flights into Kahului, Maui, a port that receives less than 2% of incoming goods, found an average of one new--not known to occur in Hawai'i--pest or pathogen arriving each day. In 2018 a report by the U.S. Geological Survey found that Hawai'i had 200% the density of non-native species compared to the 48 contiguous states, and nearly equal the number of non-native plants despite being less than 0.4% the size of the continental U.S. We, like many other States and the Territories, need additional capacity to respond to new invasive species while there is still a chance of eradication, and where necessary, apply cost-effective mitigations to minimize the negative impacts of particularly harmful established pests.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has developed a capacity to respond to invasive species with the National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Teams. The Strike Team model was based on National Park Service Exotic Plant Management Teams and hotshot fire crews.
The Strike Teams do not replace existing weed or pest management programs within Refuges, but instead provide added expertise and cost-effective capacity to address new incursions before they become established and even more costly, perpetual problems. The Strike Teams have a record of success across the country. Many times, the Strike Teams leverage partnerships for complex or multi-step projects, and since I am based in Hawai'i, I wanted to share some examples of the accomplishments of the Strike Teams in my region.
Perhaps my favorite example is the eradication of yellow crazy ants on Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the U.S. This atoll played an important role in the U.S. military's operations in the Pacific for more than seventy years while also serving as a national wildlife refuge for native birds since the 1920s. More than 14 species of seabirds are known to nest on the island, including the largest colony of red-tailed tropicbirds in the world, because of the lack of invasive pests on the atoll. However, yellow crazy ants were accidentally introduced to Johnston where they multiplied to huge populations and fed on seabirds by spraying them with formic acid which causes burns and blindness, allowing the ants to overwhelm and kill the birds.
The Crazy Ant Strike Team was formed, with team members switching in and out and over the eleven years it took to develop and implement the eradication plan which required delivering ant bait and a toxicant within a few yards of all ant nests multiple times over the course of a few years to ensure that the worker ants found the bait and every queen ant had been served enough doses of the toxicant to kill the whole colony. The team had to deliver the pancake batter-like ant bait to hard-to-reach areas, then switched to baits and toxicants in a hydrogel to get the last remaining colonies. A team of volunteer detector dogs and handlers from Conservation Dogs of Hawai'i were then used to survey for any remaining ant colonies; no ants were detected in 2021, and eradication was declared successful. The atoll remains free of yellow crazy ants to this day, protecting seabirds and the critical role they play in promoting ocean productivity around Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
A second example is the installation of the largest predator-proof fence in the U.S. at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in 2023, followed by the 2025 eradication of feral pigs and cats from within the 168 acre fenced area. This resulted in the highest numbers of successful nests of Laysan albatross, wedge-tailed shearwaters, and red-tailed tropic birds in decades. The installation of repurposed conveyor belts provide a longer-term physical barrier and weed-break necessary for maintaining the integrity of the fence. This was a collaborative project was led by the Hawai'i & Pacific Islands ISST with AmeriCorps interns, contactors, and partners.
Establishing the Strike Force program legislatively will ensure these cost-effective successes continue.
Like Refuges in Hawai'i and across the U.S., the Guam National Wildlife Refuge struggles with feral pigs. However, the efficacy of different trapping methods can vary due to different behaviors in different environments. In 2025, Invasive Species Strike Team biologists partnered with U.S. Department of Agriculture APHIS Wildlife Services (Wildlife Services) to learn what trapping methods are most effective on the Refuge. Wildlife Services tested their methods of using metal corral and pig brig traps baited with coconuts within the Refuge throughout the entire year. The team placed most of the traps close to administrative buildings to help with the high amount of pig damage occurring in those areas resulting in the removal of 118 pigs from the Refuge. This information can be used to more efficiently and effectively manage pig populations in similar areas.
These three examples don't even begin to convey the number of projects that have been conducted by the Strike Team program, or the untold numbers of species and acres that have been protected. However, I wanted to also speak to the language in this bill in Section 2 (b)(3), Provision of Assistance which authorizes the Secretary to conduct outreach to address the management of a neighboring property, or one that is "ecologically related to" a Refuge System unit, including providing or entering into, upon request, financial assistance; technical assistance; contracts; and cooperative agreements
This is welcome language that would clearly allow the Strike Teams to provide more support outside of the Refuge boundaries, which makes good sense for early detection/rapid response species and priority invasive species threats. As we all know, invasive species do not respect property lines and addressing a harmful species outside a Refuge while it can still be eradicated or managed will protect Refuge resources and reduce costs in the long run.
Further, there are many examples of high-profile invasive species incursions that require an all-hands-on-deck approach. ISSTs support interjurisdictional planning and coordination, identifying shared priorities, and help with local, state, and DoD preparedness. The language in subparagraph (B) also provides that other Federal departments or agencies may enter into an agreement to respond, via expertise and the use of the response teams, to an invasive species under that department.
It is well-established that the movement of species into new areas is increasing, and that a percentage of these non-native species will become invasive and harmful in their new locations.
Invasive species damage food security, economies, natural resources, public health, and cultures worldwide, costing the global economy over $423 billion annually, and those costs have quadrupled every decade since 1970. There is an ongoing and increasing need to establish policies and programs to prevent and respond to invasive species threats. H.R. 4219 would continue this excellent gap-filling program, with a few changes to make it even more effective.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II13/20260416/119132/HHRG-119-II13-Wstate-MartinC-20260416.pdf
FERC Office of Electric Reliability Director Ayoub Testifies Before Senate Energy & Natural Resources Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy released the following written testimony by Kal Ayoub, director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Electric Reliability, from an April 15, 2026, hearing on legislation to ensure energy reliability:* * *
Chairman McCormick, Ranking Member Gallego, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Kal Ayoub, and I am the Director of the Office of Electric Reliability (OER) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission). OER is ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy released the following written testimony by Kal Ayoub, director of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Electric Reliability, from an April 15, 2026, hearing on legislation to ensure energy reliability: * * * Chairman McCormick, Ranking Member Gallego, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Kal Ayoub, and I am the Director of the Office of Electric Reliability (OER) of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission). OER isresponsible for taking a lead role in carrying out the Commission's responsibilities in protecting, improving, and overseeing the reliability and security of the nation's Bulk-Power System through effective regulatory oversight as established in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
I am here today as a Commission staff witness and my remarks do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission or any individual Commissioner.
My testimony summarizes the Commission's oversight of the reliability of the BulkPower System and recent Commission activity implementing that authority.
FERC's Reliability Authority
In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress amended the Federal Power Act to add section 215 pertaining to Bulk-Power System reliability. Through this provision, Congress tasked the Commission with responsibility to oversee mandatory, enforceable reliability standards for the Nation's Bulk-Power System. This authority pertains to the interconnected electric power system (the "grid") in the United States, and excludes Alaska, Hawaii, and local distribution systems. The Bulk-Power System also includes the electric energy needed to maintain transmission system reliability.
Section 215 of the Federal Power Act requires the Commission to certify an Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) that is responsible for proposing, for Commission review and approval, reliability standards to help protect and improve the reliability of the Nation's Bulk-Power System. The Commission certified as the ERO the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The reliability standards apply to the users, owners and operators of the Bulk-Power System and become mandatory in the United States only after Commission approval. NERC and its six Regional Entities enforce the reliability standards and may impose penalties for noncompliance, after notice and opportunity for hearing, subject to review and CUI approval by the Commission. The Commission may also enforce reliability standards independently of NERC.
The Commission may approve proposed reliability standards or modifications to the standards if it finds them to be "just, reasonable, not unduly discriminatory or preferential, and in the public interest." If the Commission disapproves of a proposed standard or modification, section 215 requires the Commission to remand it to the ERO for further consideration. The Commission does not have the authority to modify or author a reliability standard. Rather, on its own motion or upon complaint, the Commission may direct the ERO to develop and submit for Commission approval a new or modified reliability standard on a specific matter to address a reliability gap.
Reliability Landscape
Today, reliability is being shaped by several major factors.
First, rapid load growth, particularly from large, concentrated loads such as data centers and advanced manufacturing, is occurring at a speed and scale that challenge traditional planning processes. Simply put, data centers can be built much faster than needed generation and transmission can be added to serve them.
Second, the resource fleet is becoming more diverse, and, while all types of resources contribute to reliability, they do so in different ways. This means reliability now depends on accurately modeling how each resource type performs and ensuring they meet clear, consistent performance expectations to support reliability, both when the grid is operating normally and when conditions are challenging due to outages or unexpectedly high demand.
Third, extreme weather events are now common. These events test the resilience of the grid, highlighting the importance of preparedness, coordination, and infrastructure performance under stressed conditions.
Overlaying all of this is the ever-present and constantly evolving threat landscape related to cybersecurity and physical security. Protecting the grid from malicious actors, whether through cyber intrusions, physical attacks on critical facilities, or exploitation of vulnerabilities in supply chains, remains fundamental to maintaining reliability.
FERC Activity Pertaining to Bulk-Power System Reliability
The Commission has taken extensive actions over the years to ensure reliability.
CUI
Since establishing the Critical Infrastructure Protection reliability standards in 2008, the Commission has expanded requirements to safeguard against cyber and physical threats, including new rules on supply chain risk management, internal network security monitoring, and incident response. To prepare for increasingly severe weather events, the Commission approved new extreme weather reliability standards, directed further modifications to improve extreme cold weather preparedness and operations, and required transmission providers to assess vulnerabilities. The Commission also directed NERC to develop reliability standards that address reliability risks associated with the rapid growth of inverter-based resources, which include modern wind turbines, solar photovoltaic, and battery energy storage resources. As a result, NERC has submitted and the Commission has approved a series of new and modified reliability standards that address inverter-based resources.
Currently, the Commission is closely following emerging large load activity, including ongoing NERC activity to (1) identify and register large loads for compliance with reliability standards and (2) develop new reliability standards that address the reliability risks associated with large loads. Once completed, NERC will submit the large load-related reliability standards for Commission review and approval.
Conclusion
Chairman Swett regularly emphasizes that the Commission's core responsibility is to ensure reliable and secure energy at just and reasonable rates for consumers. She routinely underscores that regulatory certainty is foundational to achieving that goal, providing the clarity needed for timely investment in infrastructure and enabling the system to keep pace with rapidly growing demand. A key part of that clarity is making sure large loads can connect with the grid quickly and predictably, with processes that move at the pace these projects arrive while still maintaining reliability.
The legislation under consideration reflects many of these challenges, particularly with respect to infrastructure development, system planning, and maintaining reliability in the face of evolving demand and resource conditions. From a technical perspective, policies that support accurate risk assessments, clear planning processes, timely infrastructure development, and effective coordination across stakeholders are essential to maintaining reliability.
In closing, the reliability framework established by Congress has provided a strong foundation for maintaining the reliability and security of the Bulk-Power System.
The Commission remains committed to working with Congress, NERC, and industry to ensure that the grid remains reliable, resilient, and secure.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/4C6ED970-2025-47CA-8C8D-654347A712C8
FERC Deputy General Counsel Morenoff Testifies Before Senate Energy & Natural Resources Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy released the following testimony by David Morenoff, deputy general counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, from an April 15, 2026, hearing on legislation to ensure energy reliability and affordability:* * *
Chairman McCormick, Ranking Member Gallego, and Members of the Subcommittee: My name is David Morenoff. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today as a member of the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission).
I currently serve as the Commission's Deputy General ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy released the following testimony by David Morenoff, deputy general counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, from an April 15, 2026, hearing on legislation to ensure energy reliability and affordability: * * * Chairman McCormick, Ranking Member Gallego, and Members of the Subcommittee: My name is David Morenoff. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today as a member of the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission). I currently serve as the Commission's Deputy GeneralCounsel. I am honored to have served in senior roles in the Commission's Office of the General Counsel since 2010. The views I express today are my own and are not necessarily those of the Commission or of any individual Commissioner.
The Commission's jurisdiction covers a range of vital, energy-related responsibilities. For example, pursuant to the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act, it is the Commission's responsibility to ensure that rates for the wholesale sale and transmission of electricity, as well as the transportation of natural gas by pipeline, in interstate commerce are just and reasonable. The Commission also is responsible for overseeing the reliability of the Nation's bulk power system, as my colleague Kal Ayoub, Director of the Commission's Office of Electric Reliability, discusses in greater detail in his testimony. In addition, the Commission is responsible for siting needed energy infrastructure, including interstate natural gas pipelines and liquified natural gas and hydroelectric facilities. By fulfilling these responsibilities, the Commission helps to ensure that our country has a reliable and affordable supply of energy.
With these responsibilities in mind, Commission Chairman Laura Swett has recognized that our country is at a historic crossroads and has highlighted three priorities for the Commission: (1) Keeping the lights on and the pipelines flowing, at just and reasonable rates, (2) Doing everything within the Commission's power to facilitate the connection of large load and data centers, while also ensuing that the resulting costs are fairly allocated, and (3) Maximizing the Commission's ability to encourage and facilitate infrastructure development, which is critical to reliability, safety, and our economy.
These responsibilities and priorities both drive the Commission's actions and align with the themes of the proposed bills that are the subject of today's hearing. Spurred in part by the demands of emerging large loads such as data centers, our country is experiencing rapid growth of electric load unlike anything seen in at least several decades. To not only meet that growth, but also to do so in an affordable manner, it is important to interconnect new generation resources expeditiously. To advance that goal, the Commission has approved proposals from the grid operators for several large regions of the country (including the California Independent System Operator, PJM Interconnection, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, and Southwest Power Pool) to expedite interconnection for generation resources that are more likely to be constructed and that will meet those regions' respective needs. The Commission also has acted on filings made by all jurisdictional transmission providers in compliance with Order No. 2023, the final rule that the Commission issued, unanimously, in 2023 to reform the rules governing the interconnection of new generation resources.
Addressing a related issue, the Commission in December directed PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest grid operator, to establish transparent rules to serve data centers and other large loads that are co-located with generation. Those rules will safeguard reliability and protect consumers, impacting over 67 million Americans. The Commission also has approved innovative proposals from other grid operators to expedite interconnection of large-load additions and associated generation in a manner that accommodates the unique operational demands of large loads while also facilitating reliable interconnection and protecting other transmission customers.
The bills that are the subject of today's hearing sound similar themes of reliability and affordability. Some of the bills identify potential reliability challenges, ranging from what too often have been frustratingly slow processes for the interconnection of new generation resources, to the potential for Federal agency actions that do not adequately account for reliability concerns. Others of the bills underscore the importance of making full use of existing electric infrastructure in support of affordability, including through appropriate application of grid-enhancing technologies. If Congress determines that these important issues warrant providing further direction to the Commission and authorizing further tools for the Commission's use in support of its mission, then the Commission stands ready to take on those additional responsibilities.
Thank you for the invitation to testify before the Subcommittee today. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/6E282A92-AC3C-4ACE-8FED-89E77E989804
Edge Partners Senior Advisor Sharkey Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific released the following written testimony by Christina Sharkey, senior advisor at Edge Partners, and former international trade specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration Foreign Commercial Service, from an April 15, 2026, hearing entitled "Helping American Businesses Win Abroad: Strengthening U.S. Commercial Diplomacy":* * *
I. Opening Statement
Chairman, Ranking Member, and distinguished Members of the Committee: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific released the following written testimony by Christina Sharkey, senior advisor at Edge Partners, and former international trade specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration Foreign Commercial Service, from an April 15, 2026, hearing entitled "Helping American Businesses Win Abroad: Strengthening U.S. Commercial Diplomacy": * * * I. Opening Statement Chairman, Ranking Member, and distinguished Members of the Committee: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Ibegan my career with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service as a GS-7 International Trade Specialist, supporting offices covering South Asia. Over the years that followed, I grew with the organization, serving in postings across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, as well as at the U.S. Export Assistance Center in San Francisco. I returned to Washington to serve as the Career Development and Assignments Officer in the Office of Global Talent Management, where I saw firsthand the challenges of building and sustaining a world-class commercial diplomacy workforce. I concluded my career as Acting Executive Director for the Western Hemisphere, overseeing commercial operations across 15 U.S. embassies from Canada to Argentina.
That arc, from an entry-level specialist to regional leadership, gave me a perspective on this work that I hope will be useful to the Committee today. I have seen commercial diplomacy from the ground up, and I have seen it from the top down. I know what it looks like when it works. And I have a clear sense of what it will take to make it work even better.
Commercial diplomacy is a term that encompasses a great deal. This Committee understands well its role in trade policy, in market access negotiations, in breaking down barriers, in advocating for American industries at the highest levels of foreign governments. That work is vital, and I will address it. But I want to begin somewhere else, with the part of this work that is perhaps less visible in Washington, but is felt most directly by American businesses and workers every day.
II. What Commercial Diplomacy Actually Does: The Full Picture
I want to begin with a moment from the floor of the World of Concrete trade show, in 2010, during the depths of the Great Recession.
The World of Concrete trade show was part of the Commercial Service's International Buyers Program, where the international offices recruit qualified foreign buyers from around the world and bring them directly to American exhibitors. I was there working out of the U.S. Export Assistance Center, helping an Algerian delegation make connections on the show floor. During that work, I stopped to speak with the owner of a small manufacturer of machines that produce concrete curbs. His company had worked with North Carolina Export Assistance Center to develop export markets for his products. And when I asked him how things were going, he told me that decision had saved his company.
When domestic orders collapsed, his international customers sustained the business. International sales, markets the Commercial Service had helped him find and enter, were the reason his employees still had jobs.
That story has played out over and over again. The numbers tell you the scale.
In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service assisted more than 33,600 U.S. export clients and more than 10,600 inward investment clients, companies seeking to bring foreign capital and jobs to American communities. Eighty-one percent of those export clients were small and medium-sized businesses. Ninety percent achieved their stated objectives, a performance standard that would be remarkable in any sector.
These are not estimates. They are documented, transaction by transaction, in a performance tracking system that records every company assisted, every service provided, every outcome reported. The Commercial Service tracks these key performance indicators (KPIs) just as any other company and diligently measures success against defined goals and targets.
I am certain that every district represented in this committee has a constituent business that has benefited directly from these services.
Export Promotion: Helping American Companies Compete and Win
The U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service was established under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and the Foreign Service Reorganization plan of 1979. Through subsequent congressional direction, the Service has been charged with prioritizing support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
That is not an accident. Small and medium-sized businesses represent approximately 97 percent of U.S. exporters. They are the backbone of the American export economy, and they are the companies that most need help navigating the complexity of foreign markets.
What makes the model distinctive is that it works at both ends. Overseas, commercial officers and local staff embedded in U.S. embassies and consulates open doors with foreign buyers, distributors, and government officials that American companies simply cannot access on their own. But the work begins at home. The network of U.S. Export Assistance Centers, located in cities across the country, is where a first-time exporter walks in the door. An international trade specialist sits down with them, assesses their readiness, identifies their best markets, and connects them to the overseas team that will take it from there. That domestic-to-international linkage is essential.
The scale of this model is reflected in programming like Trade Winds, an annual business development forum organized by the Commercial Service that brings together American companies, U.S. commercial diplomats, and pre-screened foreign buyers, distributors, and potential partners from across a target region. It is a model that works precisely because it draws on the full depth of the Commercial Service network, from domestic field offices that recruit and prepare U.S. companies, to headquarters that leads the event organization, to overseas officers who identify and vet the foreign participants. At the most recent Americas edition, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 260 attendees convened with commercial diplomats representing 16 countries. Fifty-eight U.S. businesses conducted 494 one-on-one matchmaking meetings with pre-screened partners in Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. Those are not passive networking conversations.
Those are qualified business relationships, built in days, that would have taken years to develop independently.
Investment Promotion: Bringing Jobs and Capital to American Communities
Export promotion is only part of the story. Investment promotion, attracting foreign capital and jobs to American communities, is an equally important part of the mission.
SelectUSA is the banner under which the Commercial Service promotes foreign direct investment into the United States, and Commercial staff from embassies around the world are the ones identifying foreign companies with the capital, the strategic interest, and the right profile to invest in American facilities, American supply chains, and American workers. They are making the case for the United States as a destination every day, and then connecting those investors to the state and local economic development officials who can close the deal.
In fiscal year 2023, the Foreign Commercial Service assisted more than 10,600 inward investment clients. Those are not inquiries or contacts. Those are companies that received substantive assistance in exploring investment in the United States.
Every one of those potential investments represents jobs. It represents a facility sited in an American community, a supply chain anchored to American workers, a foreign company that chose the United States because someone in a U.S. embassy made the case and made the connection.
This work belongs in any honest accounting of what commercial diplomacy delivers for the American people.
Advocacy and Trade Policy: Opening Markets for American Industry
The third pillar is the one most commonly associated with commercial diplomacy, and for good reason. Advocating for American companies and industries in foreign regulatory and policy environments, supporting U.S. positions in trade negotiations, and working to dismantle the barriers, both tariff and non-tariff, that prevent American goods and services from competing on a level playing field. This is consequential work, and it requires access and relationships that only diplomatic presence can provide.
A single successful advocacy case can be worth billions of dollars to an American industry. A foreign government reconsidering a discriminatory procurement policy, a regulatory barrier lifted, a standards regime aligned with American industry practice: these outcomes do not make headlines, but they open markets. They create the conditions under which American companies can compete and win.
I have seen this work at the highest levels. Commercial Officers and Washington regional trade specialists are translating industry concerns into informed reports like the National Trade Estimate that provide for the basis of trade negotiations today. Commerce operates at every level of this work, from supporting a single company facing a discriminatory tender to advancing broader industry coalitions on regulatory alignment.
It is quiet, persistent, and consequential.
III. A System That Delivers, But Is Running on Empty
I have described what the Foreign Commercial Service does. Now I need to tell you what it cannot do, and why.
The answer, in a word, is resources.
The Foreign Commercial Service has operated under chronic funding constraints for most of my career. This is not a recent development, and it is not a partisan one. It is a structural reality that has compounded quietly over time, eroding capacity in ways that are not always visible until the moment a company needs help and no one is available to provide it.
The numbers are stark. Today, the entire Foreign Commercial Service officer corps is smaller than a single A-100 incoming class at the State Department. Let that land for a moment. The whole of that officer workforce, the people responsible for supporting American exporters and attracting foreign investment across more than 70 markets worldwide, would fit inside one entry-level Foreign Service orientation cohort.
The consequences are felt everywhere. Overseas officers cover multiple sectors across large and complex markets with limited programming budgets and very little slack. Domestic Export Assistance Centers stretch to maintain service levels with fewer staff. Headquarters and support functions operate lean. Locally employed staff, who are the backbone of overseas operations, work with resources and salaries that have not kept pace with the demands placed on them.
My first instinct, and my first wish, is straightforward: fund the Foreign Commercial Service generously. Not just adequately, but exceptionally. The return on investment is documented, the mission is clear, and the need is real. An organization that generates billions in export value and supports tens of thousands of American companies deserves to be resourced like the strategic asset it is.
But having spent a career in this organization, I want to be honest with this Committee. That has not happened. And after years of budgets that have kept the Service functional without making it exceptional, I have come to believe that the path to a better-resourced, better-positioned commercial diplomacy enterprise runs through a structural change, one that aligns the Commercial Service with an institution that has the diplomatic standing, the global reach, and yes, the funding base, to support this mission at the scale it deserves.
That is the case for moving the Foreign Commercial Service to the Department of State.
IV. The Case for Moving to State: What We Gain
Better Coverage for American Business
The State Department maintains a diplomatic presence in virtually every country on earth. The Foreign Commercial Service does not. Today, in markets where there is no commercial officer, American companies seeking support must either go without or rely on colleagues who, however talented and well-intentioned, were not trained in export promotion or investment facilitation and are not measured by those outcomes.
Integration offers the opportunity to change that. With commercial officers embedded across the full breadth of State's global network, trade promotion and export assistance could reach every embassy, bringing the entrepreneurial spirit of the Foreign Commercial Service and real access to global markets to American small and medium-sized businesses that currently have no one in their corner in some of the world's most complex and yet fastest-growing economies.
That is not a marginal improvement. For a small manufacturer trying to enter a market where the Commercial Service currently has no presence, it is the difference between having a door opened and having no door at all.
A Better Institution for the People Who Carry Out This Mission
I also want to speak plainly about what chronic funding constraints have meant for the officers and staff who carry out this mission, because it is a part of this conversation that rarely gets the attention it deserves.
The Foreign Commercial Service has had to forgo language training for officers because of cost.
Retirement planning courses for officers approaching the end of their careers have gone unprovided. Mid-career and senior leadership development, the kind of training that builds the next generation of senior officers, has been inconsistent or frankly non-existent. Spousal employment and transition support, which is essential to recruiting and retaining talented people willing to move their families overseas repeatedly, has been limited. Locally employed staff, who are the backbone of overseas operations, have had restricted access to the professional development opportunities available to their State Department counterparts in the same buildings.
I will say carefully but clearly: the absence of sustained professional development has consequences. A well-trained, well-supported officer corps reflects well on the United States. The inverse is also true. Integration with State would open access to one of the most comprehensive professional development systems in the federal government, including leadership training, language programs, mid-career education, spousal support, and a human resources infrastructure that actually understands the Foreign Service.
Commercial officers would have more opportunities to serve in Washington, deepening their policy experience and their connections across the interagency. They would have clearer promotion pathways and a personnel system designed for the kind of career they have chosen.
These are not perks. They are the foundations of a professional, effective, and accountable workforce. The men and women of the Foreign Commercial Service have earned them.
V. The US&FCS Culture Must Be Protected
The U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service has an organizational culture that is fundamentally different from the State Department's. It is not better or worse. It is different in ways that matter enormously to the mission supporting American industry. Commercial officers are doers. They are measured by results, by the number of companies assisted, the value of deals supported, the outcomes delivered. They are trained to look at a problem and ask: what can we do to move American industry into this space? They do not wait for guidance. They build programs, convene stakeholders, and create opportunities where none existed before.
Let me give you a concrete example of what that looks like.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, I was serving in Prague. Within weeks, my team had mobilized on multiple fronts simultaneously. We organized a seminar on sanctions and export controls for Czech importers of U.S. products, because American companies needed their partners to understand the new landscape immediately. We hosted a nuclear energy trade mission that resulted in new fuel contracts for U.S. industry, because the Czech Republic was accelerating its move away from Russian energy and U.S. companies were ready to compete. We convened a dialogue with industry and EU partners on getting U.S. liquefied natural gas into a landlocked country, because the energy security crisis demanded creative solutions, not just reporting on the problem. We supported U.S. defense industry efforts to advance defense modernization with American solutions. And we hosted a U.S.-Czech business forum alongside investment promotion programming to reinforce the United States as a partner of first choice.
That response came from my small team of commercial specialists who looked at a strategic crisis, asked what American industry needed, and went and made it happen. That is the culture that must survive this transition.
The strength of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service has always been its orientation toward action, toward results for American businesses, measured and documented. That is not a critique of the Department of State, which brings extraordinary strengths of its own: global reach, diplomatic depth, and relationships cultivated at the highest levels of foreign governments. Those are precisely the assets that would make commercial diplomacy more powerful under integration.
But a successful transition will require deliberate effort to ensure that commercial officers remain commercial officers, doers and conveners, measured by outcomes, oriented toward industry. The goal is not to absorb the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service into State's culture, but to build something better than either institution has achieved alone. State's global platform and diplomatic standing, combined with the Commercial Service's execution culture and entrepreneurial spirit, is the instrument American businesses deserve.
That combination does not happen automatically. It requires leadership commitment from both institutions, clear performance expectations for commercial officers, and a mandate from Congress that preserves the results-oriented model that has made this work effective. Get that right, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
VI. Recommendations
I offer the following recommendations:
First, direct a formal review of the options for integrating the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service into the Department of State. That review should include input from current and former commercial officers, American businesses (particularly small and medium-sized exporters), State Department leadership, and the private sector organizations that work most closely with the Commercial Service. It should establish explicit criteria for preserving the operational strengths of the Commercial Service, including the Export Assistance Center network, the SME service mandate, and the performance tracking infrastructure that makes this work accountable.
Second, ensure that any integration legislation includes enforceable protections for small and medium-sized business services and the domestic Export Assistance Center network.
Third, increase resources for commercial diplomacy regardless of structural outcome. The resource deficit is real and it is damaging American competitiveness today. More commercial officers in more markets, with adequate programming budgets, will produce measurable returns for American companies and workers. That case does not require a reorganization to make. It stands on its own.
Fourth, invest in the people who carry out this mission. Develop a commercial training program that expands the services offered to more Embassies and more State Department Generalists and locally hired stiaff to build out an robust and effective Commercial cone.
VII. Conclusion
America is engaged in a competition for global economic influence. Our competitors are not standing still. They are investing in their commercial diplomacy infrastructure, expanding their reach, and working systematically to advance their companies and industries in markets around the world.
We have a tool that works. The U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service has demonstrated, year after year, that it delivers measurable results for American businesses and workers. From the small manufacturer in North Carolina whose export sales kept his company alive during the Great Recession, to the commercial team in Prague that organized a nuclear energy trade mission weeks after a land war began in Europe, this organization has shown what it can do when it is pointed at a problem and given the freedom to act.
The question before this Committee is not whether to value that tool. The question is how to make it stronger. The answer requires sustained resources, structural reform done carefully and with the right safeguards, and an unwavering commitment to the small and medium-sized businesses that are the foundation of the American export economy.
The U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service has earned its place at the table. With the right structure, the right resources, and the right mandate, it can do even more.
I am grateful for this Committee's attention and look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260415/119124/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-SharkeyC-20260415.pdf
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security Administration Aronowitz Testifies Before House Education & Workforce Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions released the following testimony by Daniel Aronowitz, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, from an April 16, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration":* * *
Good morning, Chairman Allen, Ranking Member DeSaulnier and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here today to testify about the important work of the Employee Benefits Security Administration ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions released the following testimony by Daniel Aronowitz, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, from an April 16, 2026, hearing entitled "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration": * * * Good morning, Chairman Allen, Ranking Member DeSaulnier and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here today to testify about the important work of the Employee Benefits Security Administration(EBSA) at the United States Department of Labor (DOL). It is an honor to appear before this subcommittee and represent President Donald Trump, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and EBSA. I have lived the American dream of starting, leading, and building great businesses in the retirement and benefit plan fiduciary arena. Now, I am humbled to have the opportunity to serve my country as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
Vision for Employee Benefits Security Administration
EBSA is charged with protecting American workers' retirement and health care benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). We are the guardians of ERISA and the stewards of retirement and health plans in the United States. Our agency is responsible for over 155 million workers, retirees, and their families who are covered by benefit plans we oversee, including over 837,000 private retirement plans holding an estimated $15.2 trillion in assets and approximately 2.8 million health plans, and 521,000 other welfare plans. EBSA also has regulatory and interpretive responsibilities related to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) holding roughly $16.8 trillion in assets.
Prior to my confirmation last year, the ERISA benefits system faced many challenges. Litigation abuse and regulatory overreach threatened harm to Americans' retirement and health plans.
Innovation stagnated as employers were paralyzed with very rational fears. EBSA, under President Trump's and Secretary Chavez-DeRemer's bold leadership, is charting a new course. We want more employers to offer more benefits - and more inventive ones at that. To execute that vision, we are addressing regulatory overreach and litigation abuse with three key goals in mind:
* First, we are addressing regulatory overreach in the employee benefits arena - restoring discretion and judgment to plan sponsors. We are providing regulatory clarity for both retirement and health plan sponsors.
* Second, we are stopping regulation by government enforcement, ending an often ad-hoc, oppressive enforcement regime. EBSA's enforcement is now fair and even-handed. And we are doubling down on enhanced compliance assistance and outreach to employers and workers.
* Third, we are attacking regulation by private litigation, combatting ERISA class action litigation abuse that has stifled innovation in plan design - paralyzing conscientious plan fiduciaries who follow sound fiduciary practices.
We believe that this three-part formula is the key to unlocking innovation in retirement and health plan solutions in America, which will unleash the full potential of the retirement and health plan systems. It is how we deliver on President Trump's goal to usher in a new Golden Age for Americans and how we achieve a new Golden Age of employee benefits.
Addressing Regulatory Overreach in Employee Benefits
EBSA is taking regulatory actions at the express directive of President Trump to provide regulatory clarity on key fiduciary issues for both retirement and health plans.
Earlier this year, EBSA published a groundbreaking proposed rulemaking that gives plan fiduciaries the tools they need to carry out their responsibilities and negotiate fair contracts with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) that have cemented themselves into the prescription drug supply chain. Once finalized, this rule will put the hard-earned dollars of American workers and business owners back in their pockets by saving the American worker and the healthcare system billions of dollars over the next 10 years.
This rule will enhance transparency in PBM compensation by requiring detailed disclosures of direct and indirect compensation to fiduciaries of self-insured group health plans governed by ERISA, specifically rebates, claw backs of copays from pharmacies, and spread pricing. And it will also give plan sponsors audit rights for the first time. With this information in hand, fiduciaries will need to closely evaluate whether their pharmacy spend meets ERISA's standards for reasonableness, ensuring that plan assets are used prudently and in the best interests of participants.
Equipped with clearer and more comprehensive data, they will be in a stronger position to negotiate better deals with PBMs--driving down overall health plan costs. Coupled with the new provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 - specifically the requirement to pass-through 100 percent of manufacturer rebates - this creates, for the first time, a complete transparency framework for prescription drug pricing.
President Trump's "American Worker First" agenda for employer-sponsored healthcare is designed to put control back in the hands of employers and employees, drive down costs, and maximize value. We strive for a health care system where every dollar is traceable, every contract is understandable, and employers and workers get real value for their money. Our mission is simple: use ERISA's full power to demand value and lower costs by holding health insurers, PBMs, and service providers accountable.
For retirement plans, under President Trump's directive, EBSA took decisive steps on March 31, 2026, to alleviate regulatory burdens and litigation risks that interfere with the ability of American workers, through their retirement accounts, to achieve the competitive returns and asset diversification necessary to secure a dignified and comfortable retirement. We published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will assist plan fiduciaries who follow a prudent process - as outlined within twenty safe harbor examples - in diversifying plan investment choices from unfair hindsight second-guessing of their discretionary fiduciary decisions.
The proposed rule clarifies fiduciary duties and levels the playing field so that plan fiduciaries can responsibly make discretionary judgments about what investments are most likely to maximize risk-adjusted returns - selecting plan investments without fear of undue liability. EBSA is applying a principle- and process-based standard that ERISA requires. The rule is asset-neutral - DOL does not endorse any investment product. This proposed rule will empower plan fiduciaries to offer more innovative retirement solutions for America's workers.
Another example of providing regulatory clarity is our decisive action on the investment advice fiduciary rule. The Biden Administration issued a rule to expand DOL's authority beyond employee benefit plans to IRA rollovers. This action was declared illegal by two federal district courts. The SEC and state regulators have jurisdiction to regulate activity in the individual market, and we are going to let them do their jobs.
Instead of attempting to regulate activity outside of our jurisdictional mandate, EBSA is focused on our core mission, redoubling our efforts to make employer-based U.S. retirement plans the strongest and most innovative in the world. The Department recently confirmed that the original 1975 five-part test for status as an investment advice fiduciary has been fully restored.
Ensuring Fair and Even-handed Enforcement
My second goal is to ensure that EBSA's enforcement is fair, even-handed, and efficient. We will accomplish this objective with four guiding enforcement principles, along with pledges from EBSA to the regulated community. First, we are going to focus on cases where there is egregious conduct and significant harm, with a significant focus on enforcing the duty of loyalty under ERISA. Second, we are going to stop regulation by enforcement to assure fairness and proper notice to the regulated community. Third, EBSA will appropriately vet all significant enforcement matters to ensure there are no rogue EBSA investigations and that enforcement is consistent and uniform nationwide. And finally, we will ensure that EBSA's enforcement will be timely and responsive.
Our changes to enforcement have allowed EBSA to strategically deploy our limited resources, and the results continue to demonstrate maximum effectiveness. In fiscal year (FY) 2025, EBSA recovered nearly $1.4 billion in payments to plans, participants and beneficiaries. Nearly half, or $714.4 million was recovered from 878 civil enforcement investigations. In FY26, EBSA is introducing timeliness metrics that will promote prompt detection, pursuit, and correction of violations. These metrics are meant to address concerns about EBSA investigations spanning years. EBSA is committed to completing investigations within reasonable timelines, along with prosecuting bad actors who violate ERISA.
Finally, for the first time in nearly two decades, we instituted material changes to EBSA's national enforcement priorities. We are going to be better stewards of our enforcement resources to increase broad-based employee benefit plan compliance, address abusive practices and bad actors, and deliver results that increase security for participants and beneficiaries. By recalibrating the areas our investigators focus on, EBSA investigations will be more efficient, responsive, and prioritize serious misconduct rather than minor process fouls.
EBSA revised its enforcement priorities to include cybersecurity and data protection, barriers to mental health and substance use disorder benefits, compliance with the No Surprises Act, protection of benefit distributions, retirement asset management and fiduciary conduct, criminal abuse of contributory plans and service provider oversight. We removed ESOP valuations and terminated-vested participants searches from our national enforcement priorities. Prior ESOP enforcement had the direct impact of employers avoiding the use of ESOPs because of litigation risk. This directly harmed American workers when they lost out on the potential of ownership in the company for which they worked. And terminated-vested participant searches resulted in making plan sponsors spend more than account balances in futile, repeated searches for missing participants. EBSA will require common sense. As noted above, EBSA's mission is to protect the retirement and health system in America, not harm it.
EBSA has also prioritized compliance assistance and outreach. One of the most important ways that EBSA protects American workers is our Benefits Advisors program. The program is supported by an army of advisors strategically placed in 11 locations across the country. Their job is to answer the phone when American workers and business owners call to get help with the retirement and health care issues and claims. Overall, in fiscal year 2025, EBSA's Benefits Advisors closed 249,000 cases and protected almost $536 million in health, retirement, and other job-based benefits. But it's not just about the money -- it's about peace of mind and knowing someone has your back. Under this Administration, EBSA will always be there for the American worker.
Combatting ERISA Litigation Abuse
Finally, our third goal is to combat ERISA class action litigation abuse, which has stifled innovation in plan design. This type of litigation abuse deters conscientious plan sponsors from trying innovative strategies that could protect their employees and potentially enhance their benefits. This is why we have filed a number of amicus briefs to defend ERISA as a law of process in which independent and conflict-free plan fiduciaries have discretion and flexibility to act in the best interests of their participants. We have also made clear in our filings that plan fiduciaries' decisions should not be subject to second-guessing from the judicial system when they have followed a sound and prudent fiduciary process as ERISA requires.
We are not depriving workers of their right to sue. EBSA will ardently protect the right of participants to sue when the harm is real. Instead, we are pushing back on meritless cases that are designed to leverage settlements because the cost of class-action litigation is so high. We are pushing back on cases against plans with best-in-class fiduciary processes. Our amicus program is decisively pro-ERISA, as EBSA's job is to protect and steward America's retirement and health systems. And that is what we are doing.
Conclusion
EBSA remains committed to ensuring the security of retirement, health, and other job-based benefits of America's workers and their families, and we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal. I will continue to work tirelessly to lead this great agency in its sacred and timeless mission. Again, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of this historic Administration. I look forward to answering your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/aronowitz_testimony.pdf