[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 198 (Wednesday, December 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6972-S6973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Stephen Hahn

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am going to take a chance this afternoon 
and vote for one of the President's nominees. Some of my colleagues 
have come up to me and said I am making a big mistake, and I hope I am 
not.
  His name is Stephen Hahn. He is a medical doctor and an oncologist 
from MD Anderson in Texas, and he has been named to serve as the Food 
and Drug Administration Commissioner.
  This is a relatively small agency by Federal standards that has a 
major-size impact on the lives of Americans and beyond. I think it is 
one of our most important agencies. It regulates so many things 
relating to safety and quality of life, and Dr. Hahn would come to this 
position at an auspicious moment in our history.
  I refer, of course, to the fact that we are now battling a vaping 
epidemic across the United States of America.
  The Presiding Officer, from Utah, and I have worked on this together, 
and I thank him for his leadership in this regard.
  I look at Dr. Hahn and I think of all the questions that I have asked 
him. I had a face-to-face meeting with him in my office and then had 
him on the phone last night for another half hour, and he was very 
patient in answering my questions.

[[Page S6973]]

  I asked him about the vaping crisis we face, the epidemic that we 
face. He readily concedes that this is something he feels very strongly 
about.
  The latest disclosure from the youth tobacco report suggests that 28 
percent or more of high school students across the United States are 
currently using e-cigarettes or vaping. Yesterday, I had a group of 
high school students from New York who asked to see me, and they said: 
Senator, you are wrong. It is over half.
  A majority of the students in high school now are using JUUL devices, 
or vaping devices, and these flavors, and they have developed nicotine 
addictions, which have become controlling in their lives and it affects 
the way they feel and the way they perform as students.
  That is why it is so important, from my point of view, for Dr. Hahn 
to make this a major priority. He assured me that he would. He reminded 
me that he is a lung cancer doctor, and we had a long conversation 
about my father, who died of that disease, and tobacco and the impact 
it had on his life. I felt sincerity on the part of the doctor when he 
was discussing this.
  We talked about working with Dr. Azar, who has been an ally in this 
conversation about controlling vaping devices and cigarettes.
  He said that regardless of how I voted for him, he would look forward 
to working with me. I am going to vote for him as the new FDA 
Commissioner. It is a leap of faith because I am not certain where the 
President of the United States is at this moment.
  The Presiding Officer was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago in the 
White House, and I have commended him for the questions he asked there, 
hoping to hold the President and First Lady to their promise of 
September 15 to really take on this epidemic of vaping and e-
cigarettes. I don't know at this moment whether he is going to continue 
in that effort or whether the vaping industry has diverted him to a 
different point of view.
  Dr. Hahn may find himself in a compromised position soon, and I told 
him as much. If it comes to the point where the President has abandoned 
his effort against vaping and the industry is going to prevail, then, I 
am afraid that Dr. Hahn is going to be wearing the collar for some of 
the things that follow. Even though he may not even agree with the 
President's conclusion, he will be working for the President as part of 
his administration.
  Dr. Hahn said to me: I don't want to be known in history as the head 
of the FDA who saw this epidemic grow dramatically when it comes to 
vaping by young people.
  I am going to give him my vote, and I do it with the hope that he 
will have a persuasive voice with Dr. Azar and the administration to 
move in the right direction.
  I applauded President Trump--which is unusual from my side of the 
aisle--when he made his initial decision to take action against e-
cigarettes, and I would like to applaud him again. I hope he will 
resume this effort. I hope the First Lady, who rarely gets engaged in 
issues but seems to feel very strongly about this, will join us in 
persuading the President to keep true to his promise of September 15.
  I will be supporting Dr. Hahn's nomination for FDA Commissioner.