E&C Leaders Ask Azar to Clarify His Role in Trump’s Family Separation Policy

Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) wrote to former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar today following up on recent information that calls into question the extent of his role in the formation of the Trump Administration’s inhumane family separation policy.

“As part of the Committee’s nearly three-year-long investigation into the creation and implementation of this cruel and inhumane policy, one of our primary goals has been to bring accountability regarding who was responsible for this policy,” the Committee leaders wrote to former Secretary Azar. “As we noted in our previous letter to you, documents obtained by the Committee demonstrated that career officials within [HHS] were raising moral objections and logistical concerns about the reported family separation policy to senior HHS leaders before the policy was enacted. In testimony before the Committee in 2019, you maintained that those concerns did not reach you.”

However, recent information calls Azar’s involvement in family separations into question. According to an August 2020 NBC News report, Azar was invited to a meeting at the White House in early May 2018, where the decision to separate families was debated and voted on. NBC News further reported that “[n]o one in the meeting made the case that separating families would be inhumane or immoral.”

Pallone, Eshoo, and DeGette wrote to Azar in September 2020 asking whether he attended that meeting and whether he voted to proceed with family separations. On January 15, 2021, the then-HHS Assistant Secretary for Legislation replied to the Committee leaders on Azar’s behalf, with a short letter that failed to answer whether he attended the meeting, stating only, “Secretary Azar stands by his testimony before the Committee and disputes any implication that he may have been anything other than completely truthful in his testimony.”

However, a recent report from the independent Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) suggests Azar’s involvement in the May 2018 White House meeting. The report detailed a meeting at the White House on May 3, 2018, “that included the [Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] and HHS Secretaries.” The report also describes talking points prepared for the meeting on family separation for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which acknowledge that minors separated from their families would likely be placed into HHS’s custody. 

“It still remains unclear if you attended the May 3, 2018, meeting at the White House and if a vote took place as reported. But if you did attend the meeting, it would suggest you had the opportunity to ‘raise objections and concerns’ that you testified you wished you could have done, and yet it appears you failed to do so,” Pallone, Eshoo, and DeGette continued in their letter to Azar.  “Given this new information, and your failure to answer the questions outlined in our September 17th letter, we have additional concerns about your role in the family separation crisis.”

As part of their ongoing inquiry, the Committee leaders requested the following from Azar by March 10, 2021: 

• Confirm whether you attended the meeting on May 3, 2018, at the White House during which potential family separations were discussed, as reported by NBC News and confirmed by DOJ-OIG. 
• NBC News reported that the attendees at the May 3rd meeting were asked “by a show-of-hands vote” whether to recommend implementing family separations. Did some form of voting occur at that meeting as the NBC News report indicates? If voting did occur on the issue of separating families, please indicate whether you voted or provided input on this question at that meeting, and if so, how you voted or what input you provided. Further, please identify what concerns, if any, you raised about family separations.

The full letter is available HERE.

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