[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          NOMINATION OBJECTION

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I intend to object to the nomination of 
Dr. Mary Wakefield to the position of HHS Deputy Secretary.
  The reason for my objection is the following: Last summer, separate 
inquiries from Chairman Johnson and myself and from Senators Ernst and 
Blunt were sent to HHS regarding fetal tissue harvesting practices of 
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an HHS grant recipient. 
Response to the letters did not fully answer the questions raised and, 
furthermore, raised additional concerns. Follow-up inquiries to HHS 
also failed to address some of the questions.
  Today I sent a followup letter to Secretary Burwell in order to 
determine whether any audits of the fetal tissue programs have ever 
been undertaken.

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