Bill Lee

We need to know if you are going to protect the financial safeguards to retirement savings that were put in place by the fiduciary rule.

The budget also proposes to cut funding for the Women's Bureau, $10,000,000, eliminates 70 percent of its staff.

I expect to see the $7.5 million.

You are really--it is eliminated.

I don't think that is what the HBCUs have requested.

You are eliminating Special Olympics, $12.6 million.

You are cutting, you are zeroing out, American history and civic academics.

But I don't think you really mean that because you don't increase the funding for HBCUs.

I could not go to public school, Madam Secretary.

For too long, black students weren't allowed to enroll in predominantly white institutions, even at public schools in their own States.

To me, it is outrageous.

It has been the Federal Government that allowed me to go to school, okay? And so when you say that it is up to the parents and local communities, even if young people are being discriminated against, that it is the parents and schools, and…

The Office of Minority Health, for example, has been critical in identifying racial and ethnic health disparities.

I have to agree with my ranking member in terms of doubling the budget. That is what I want to see.

I know they don't have a plan. I don't know about other regions, but I know they just don't have it in my district.

I mean, this is pretty bad, if you ask me.

What I am concerned about and what I would like to hear from you is, just in terms of our safety net programs that are being cut...

When you look at the Department of Labor, there is a 21-percent cut, which decreases Federal support for training...

I know for a fact, in my area, at Treasure Island, the Job Corps program serves many, many young people who never would have had those opportunities, whether they have children or not.

Do you really believe--or do you believe that low-income people deserve the same access to quality health care as upper-income individuals?

So your answer is no, You don't support----

I am concerned that your agency, through this budget and its policies, really are trying to make it explode by some of these cuts.

The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land.

It appears that you want, and your agency wants to actually deconstruct the department that you are leading.

I see once again, and I just have to say this, Mr. Secretary, I see what Steve Bannon meant when he talked about deconstructing the administrative state.