Andrea Palm, President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), would not say during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Thursday if the situation at the southern border is a “crisis.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee’s subcommittee on Health, asked Palm if she believes the situation at the southern border is in crisis mode.
The Montana conservative asked, “Do you think that the current situation at the southern border is a crisis?”
Palm dodged the question, saying instead, “This is one of the most pressing issues that HHS is working on right now, and should I be fortunate enough to be confirmed, I look forward to being part of helping get these children through the system and placed with safe places with sponsors as quickly as possible.”
Palm, if confirmed, would oversee the agency at HHS that would handle care for unaccompanied minors who cross the border.
Daines asked again, “Do you think it’s a crisis?”
Palm then said the situation is a “very urgent need.” She also said she has not been to the southern border.
Daines wrote:
@JoeBiden‘s HHS nominee that would oversee unaccompanied minors refuses to call the #BidenBorderCrisis what it is—a crisis—and she can’t say whether or not she believes VP @KamalaHarris should visit the border to see firsthand the situation that she’s apparently in charge of.
Daines served as part of a large Senate Republican delegation that traveled to the southern border. He told Breitbart News Daily‘s Alex Marlow that Mexican cartel members threatened Senate Republicans across the Rio Grande river.
Palm also refused to answer if Vice President Harris, whom Biden tapped to solve the border crisis, should travel to the border to see the crisis at hand.
Daines said, “That was 20 days ago, and she [Harris] has yet to show any interest in actually visiting the southern border. Hasn’t shown up.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.