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Committee member raises child-welfare, public-health concerns about Alex Adams nomination to lead ACF
Summary
An unidentified committee member introduced Alex Adams as the nominee for assistant secretary for family support at the Administration for Children and Families and warned that proposed deregulation and recent HHS staffing cuts could harm Head Start, child-care safety, and vulnerable children and seniors.
An unidentified committee member opened a Senate Committee on Finance hearing by introducing Alex Adams as the nominee for assistant secretary for family support at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and warned that the nominee’s record and broader agency staffing cuts pose risks to children, families and seniors.
The speaker said advocates in Idaho had told the committee they were "alarmed" about state-level policies and that Adams is a "proponent of deregulation at any cost," a characterization he summarized as "0 based regulation," which he said removes regulatory guardrails. "When I hear 0 based regulation, it tells me there are no guardrails," the speaker said.
Why it matters: ACF oversees Head Start programs, child-care health and safety standards and protections for unaccompanied immigrant children; the agency was also described in the transcript as taking on responsibility for senior nutrition. The speaker argued that reduced staffing after recent HHS firings combined with added responsibilities could create "significant harm" for vulnerable populations.
The committee member cited specific concerns raised in the hearing record: he said Head Start programs are "struggling right now to keep their doors open due to funding uncertainty," and that he had seen evidence of "lowering safety standards in licensure for kids with disability." He framed those items as central oversight questions if Adams is confirmed.
The speaker also linked broader public-health trends to policy choices, asserting that "more than 15,000,000 Americans, 15,000,000, are about to lose their health care so that there'd be tax breaks for the ultra wealthy," and noting a reported measles outbreak he characterized as "the worst in 30 years, with 1,300 cases." Those figures and claims were presented by the speaker as part of his critique; the transcript does not record independent verification or a response from the nominee in this segment.
The speaker said the nominee should be someone "who's going to follow smart and basic science" and "go to the mat to keep kids healthy and safe no matter what their faith, their immigration status, or how they identify." The transcript does not include a response from Alex Adams in this excerpt.
Next step: These remarks were part of opening statements; the transcript segment contains no committee vote or final action on the nomination. The hearing proceeded to consider the nominations with questioning expected later in the record.
