[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 25 (Monday, February 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1098-S1100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of David Shulkin

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to express my strong support for 
the nomination of Dr. David Shulkin to be the next Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs. I believe his impressive record of service in both 
the public and private health care sectors as well as his firm grasp of 
VA health care issues make him extraordinarily well qualified to lead 
the Department through the coming period of major reforms and 
continuing transformation.
  Dr. Shulkin has served in numerous executive roles at hospitals 
across the country, including Beth Israel Medical Center in New York 
City, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and the Atlantic 
Rehabilitation Institute. In fact, he has been named one of the top 100 
Physician Leaders of Hospitals and Health Systems and one of the 50 
Most Influential Physician Executives in the country.
  In 2015, Dr. Shulkin brought his extensive experience in the private 
sector to the Department of Veterans Affairs and served as the VA Under 
Secretary for Health. Last year, I had the opportunity to host Dr. 
Shulkin in my hometown of Caribou, ME, as he toured the community-based 
outpatient clinic and our local hospital, Cary Medical Center, to see 
the innovative work being done there to provide veterans with top-
quality health care closer to where they live.
  Cary Medical Center partners with the VA through the Access Received 
Closer to Home or ARCH Program to provide veterans in Northern Maine 
with high-quality care, including specialty care close to home and 
close to their families, rather than forcing them to drive 250 or more 
miles to receive their care at the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta, 
the location of Maine's only VA hospital.
  This partnership between Cary Medical Center and the VA has been a 
huge success, with an approval rating from our veterans exceeding 90 
percent. Last spring, when we were faced with the potential expiration 
of the ARCH Program, Dr. Shulkin, at my invitation, came to Maine and 
announced his commitment to ensure that veterans using this innovative 
program in our State would maintain seamless community care. He has 
kept his word.
  During his visit to Maine, Dr. Shulkin also toured the Togus VA 
Medical Center, the oldest VA facility in the Nation and the community-
based outpatient clinic in Bangor. I would note that he drove the 4 
hours from Augusta, where the VA hospital is located, to Caribou to get 
a better sense of the distances in our State. Right now, when we are in 
the midst of a fierce blizzard, you can imagine how important it is for 
veterans in need of care to be able to access that care close to home 
in an emergency.
  I was truly impressed, and remain truly impressed, with Dr. Shulkin's 
understanding of the needs of rural veterans and the challenges of 
providing health care in rural settings. While in Maine, Dr. Shulkin 
listened to veterans health care providers, VSO advocates, and the VA 
staff alike to ensure that our veterans received the care they

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have earned through their service to our Nation.
  In fact, he remained in Caribou and had a town meeting in which he 
heard from people representing a variety of views but all of whom 
encouraged him to continue this wonderful program. Dr. Shulkin's 
nomination to be VA Secretary has drawn support from our veterans 
service organizations throughout the country, including the American 
Legion, the VFW, the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans 
of America, AMVETS, and the Vietnam Veterans of America.
  That does not surprise me because he has demonstrated, in very 
concrete ways, his commitment to the veterans we are serving. At a time 
when bipartisan consensus, unfortunately, has been all too rare in this 
Chamber, Dr. Shulkin's nomination has been one of the few areas where 
Republicans and Democrats have found common ground. His nomination was 
approved unanimously by the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.
  During this time, when crucial reforms and organizational changes are 
necessary to ensure consistent, high-quality care for our Nation's 
veterans, it is critical that the VA have a talented, experienced, and 
committed leader to spearhead the Department's transformation as we 
seek to improve the quality and timeliness of health care for our 
veterans.
  Dr. Shulkin is an excellent nominee and I urge all of my colleagues 
to support his confirmation.
  Seeing no one seeking recognition, I suggest the absent of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, it is observed that we are being asked to 
confirm a Treasury Secretary who helped bring about the 2008 financial 
crisis and profited off the misery that followed.
  During his campaign, President Trump promised to crack down on Wall 
Street abuses. In one of his campaign ads, the President said that the 
CEO of Goldman Sachs was part of a ``global elite'' that was ``robbing 
our working class.'' He said that on Wall Street, ``It's the powerful 
protecting only the powerful.''
  Given his campaign promises, it is astounding that President Trump 
nominated Steve Mnuchin, someone whose business record embodies the 
worst abuses from the financial crisis, to serve as Secretary of the 
Treasury.
  In the fall of 2008, when I served in the U.S. House, then-Treasury 
Secretary Hank Paulson came to Capitol Hill and painted a dire picture. 
He told us that without drastic intervention by Congress and the White 
House, the entire global financial system would collapse. The situation 
was so dire, he argued, that we could not even pause to provide 
additional, meaningful relief to the millions of families across the 
country facing home foreclosures.
  In the years that followed, we learned a lot more about just how bad 
things were. Many banks sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford 
them, packaged those mortgages into complex financial instruments, 
colluded with ratings agencies, and sold those ``products'' as solid 
investments.
  The American people stepped in with hundreds of billions of dollars 
to bail out Wall Street. But without effective, broad laws in place 
before the financial crisis to prevent predatory lending, millions of 
people lost their homes and trillions of dollars in household wealth. 
Many of those victims have yet to recover.
  That was bad enough as it was unfolding, but in the years that 
followed, we learned more and more about the numerous abuses these 
banks perpetrated on the American people.
  After years of pushing subprime loans on minority homeowners who 
couldn't afford them, foreclosures devastated minority communities 
across the country. According to a 2010 study by the Center for 
Responsible Lending, minority homeowners were 70 percent more likely to 
lose their homes in foreclosure proceedings.
  Many banks also violated judicial foreclosure proceedings when they 
signed hundreds of thousands of foreclosure documents without reviewing 
them, also known as robo-signing.
  Some of my colleagues might argue that it isn't worth rehashing this 
devastating economic history, but I disagree because today we will be 
asked to vote for a Treasury nominee whose questionable business 
practices earned him the title of ``Foreclosure King.''
  As a senior executive at Goldman Sachs for 17 years, Steve Mnuchin 
was an evangelist for the types of financial transactions--credit 
default swaps and collateralized debt obligations--that crashed the 
economy in 2008. He said these instruments were ``an extremely positive 
development in terms of being able to finance different parts of the 
economy and different businesses effectively.'' What was essentially 
just business to him devastated the economy and the lives of millions 
of people.
  As the CEO of OneWest, Mnuchin was deeply involved in subprime 
lending and was responsible for tens of thousands of foreclosures 
across the country. Under Mr. Mnuchin's leadership, OneWest was among 
the worst offenders in robo-signing foreclosure documents. While he 
denied this fact during his confirmation hearing, a vice president at 
OneWest admitted to signing 750 documents per week while spending less 
than 30 seconds on each one. In other words, he was very busy robo-
signing these documents.
  Under Mr. Mnuchin's leadership, a OneWest subsidiary, Financial 
Freedom, foreclosed on more than 16,000 seniors who were living on 
fixed incomes and who had reverse mortgages with that company. In one 
case, the company foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman's home over a 27-
cent debt.
  Hundreds of families across Hawaii who had mortgages with OneWest 
felt the impact of Steve Mnuchin's business practices personally.
  In 2013, I received a letter from Suzanne on the Big Island. Suzanne 
is a retired Navy civilian. She depends on her disability and 
retirement income to afford her modest home in Hilo. She had her 
mortgage through OneWest. When she wrote to me, her home was in court-
ordered mediation pending foreclosure. Suzanne went into mediation in 
good faith, assuming that OneWest would assist her with a loan 
modification. Well, she was wrong. Suzanne and OneWest agreed that 
before she signed any modification, she would receive a written offer 
that included the full terms of the agreement. But during their second 
mediation meeting, in violation of the agreement, OneWest told Suzanne 
that she owed $30,000 more than her records showed and made a 
unilateral offer without disclosing any of the terms, contrary to what 
they had agreed to.
  Suzanne wisely refused to accept the so-called offer. At the time 
that she wrote to me, OneWest was pushing a judge to proceed with her 
foreclosure. ``I can afford my home,'' she wrote. ``I want to keep my 
home, but the difference between $1,300 and $1,500 a month is huge.''
  OneWest has billions and is considering going public this year.
  She went on to say: ``They have made unreasonable offers, lost 
paperwork, ignored requests. All the nightmares you hear about on the 
news, well, consider me a poster child.''
  Suzanne asked us to write to Steve Mnuchin on her behalf, even though 
she knew that OneWest had a record of hanging homeowners like her out 
to dry. She said: ``It seems to me that Mr. Mnuchin was one of the 
architects of our meltdown.'' She is right.
  There are tens of thousands of stories from OneWest customers like 
Suzanne across the country, and Mr. Mnuchin is responsible for each one 
of them as CEO of OneWest. Now President Trump is asking us to confirm 
Mr. Mnuchin to serve as Treasury Secretary.
  Throughout his campaign, President Trump made it clear that he wants 
to dismantle Dodd-Frank, eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau, and roll back financial regulations that would prevent another 
financial crisis. As Treasury Secretary, Mr. Mnuchin would be charged 
with implementing this agenda.
  Credible economists have warned that we could end up in another 
financial crisis. My question is, Who would a Secretary Mnuchin try to 
save--Wall Street or the millions of people who will be adversely 
impacted? His record shows which path Steve Mnuchin

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would choose. That is why I call on my colleagues to oppose this 
nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.