Maggie Hassan

Last year, the CARES Act included my legislation with Senator Casey to formally establish and authorize funding for the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement program.

I am pleased and honored to work with Senator Collins on the Opioid Workforce Act and we will continue to push that through.

Congress has to continue funding of telehealth.

I want to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for holding this hearing. And to all of the panelists, thank you for being here.

Senator Hassan and I recently reintroduced the Opioid Workforce Act, legislation that would create 1,000 new medical residency positions focused on addiction medicine at teaching hospitals.

I also want to reinforce my colleagues' calls to continue to expand telehealth access, including in rural communities.

Earlier this year, Senator Cassidy and I reintroduced the Maternal Immunization Coverage Act to help address this disparity.

I want to echo what Senator Warner was just talking about when it comes to facilitating medication-assisted treatment.

The news that there could be an authorized COVID-19 vaccine for all children by the end of this year is truly an exciting development for many families.

The Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection has a mandate to accept and investigate cases of wrongdoing involving senior leadership.

That is why I joined the New Hampshire delegation in proposing legislation that would expand eligibility to help ensure that these veterans may also be buried at State veteran cemeteries.

I think just that focus on affirmative outreach is going to be really important, so I appreciate your commitment to that.

Will you also just commit to taking seriously whistleblower concerns and working with our office on this matter and others, should you be confirmed?

Will you also commit to reviewing the handling of whistleblower claims at White River Junction?

Misconduct and poor performance allegations like the ones at White River Junction need to be taken seriously.

Not listening to whistleblowers can be a risk to patients' health and can lead to significant issues of poor performance, waste, fraud, and abuse.

My bipartisan bill, the Solid Start Act, strengthens a VA program under which the VA contacts every veteran three times in the first year after they leave active duty to check in and help connect them to VA program and benefits.

As we have discussed today, caregiving obligations disproportionately fall to women and can impact the number of women in the workforce.

The demand for caregiving is likely to only grow as our population is aging.

This is a public health imperative that businesses that are eligible for that tax credit use it and that other businesses give workers paid sick days for the vaccination.

Expanding access to paid leave would help families across Country balance needs at home and at work.

With COVID-19 vaccines widely available to adults, some workers have cited their lack of access to paid time off as the reason for not yet getting the vaccine.

Enhancing the survivor benefit... would be really important.

I think paid family leave is a big factor here, as well as just the access gap that we have been talking about all morning.

I would look forward to further consultation about other ways Congress can move forward on helping all of our retirement plans be cyber secure.