The Senate Finance Committee began its session by announcing it would consider favorably reporting the nominations of Jonathan McKernan to be Undersecretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department and Dr. Alex Adams to be Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the Department of Health and Human Services. The committee said it would recess briefly and schedule a floor vote at 11 a.m.

Ranking Member Ron Wyden used his opening remarks to announce he will vote against both nominees. Wyden said Adams’s record as director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare showed “weakening oversight standards for residential treatment facilities,” rollbacks in staffing standards for child-care facilities and cuts to programs supporting children with disabilities. Wyden also said he plans to hold Adams to commitments on addressing abuse and neglect in residential treatment centers and planned to place his committee’s investigation related to mistreatment of LGBTQ youth into the record.

Wyden criticized McKernan for failing to show he would protect taxpayer privacy after the Treasury’s transfer of the department’s payment system (referred to in testimony as “Doge” and the “Treasury payment system”). Wyden said McKernan “failed to demonstrate that he will be committed to protecting American taxpayers” and urged colleagues to vote no on both nominees.

Committee procedure and next steps
The chairacknowledged the announced votes and confirmed the committee would reconvene for a nominations hearing and later notify members of the floor vote time. No roll-call or recorded committee votes on the two nominations were included in the transcript; the committee indicated the final vote would occur at the Senate floor’s next voting series.