During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing last week, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) questioned Cheryl Mason about President Trump's mass firings of Inspectors General upon taking office.
00:00And good afternoon. Congratulations to you and your family on your nomination.
00:05And just on a personal note, I am really sorry for the toll that suicide has taken on your family.
00:10And I'm grateful that you have been open about that.
00:14I think that openness helps a lot of people.
00:17I want to start by asking you a straightforward question that I ask all nominees.
00:22If directed by the president to take action that would break the law,
00:25would you follow the law or follow the president's directive?
00:28Senator Hassen, I appreciate that question, and I will follow the law as a lawyer.
00:34Earlier this year, President Trump illegally fired the VA's inspector general,
00:39along with several other inspectors general.
00:42Do you support the firing of inspectors general without the president first providing the required statutory notice to Congress?
00:49Well, thank you for that question.
00:50It would really be inappropriate for me to comment on that,
00:53as that issue is currently being litigated in the courts.
00:58I will just comment that as a lawyer, as somebody who has prided herself in this testimony to us,
01:07as understanding and investigating facts and applying the law,
01:12I think you could venture to say that the president's firing of the inspector general at the VA
01:19and across government violated the clear language of the statute.
01:23And I'm disappointed that you're unwilling to say that.
01:25Let me move on to another question, which really follows up on issues that both Senator Moran and Blumenthal have raised.
01:33You've served as a senior advisor to Secretary Collins since January,
01:37and you've worked at the VA for decades.
01:39The inspector general is required to be, as you pointed out,
01:42nonpartisan and independent from agency leadership.
01:45However, your prior work advising Secretary Collins calls into question your ability to be nonpartisan and independent.
01:52If you become the IG, you would need to recuse yourself from any investigations in order to preserve the independence of the office.
02:00Will you recuse yourself from any investigations relating to matters you worked on while previously employed by the VA?
02:06Thank you, Senator Hassan.
02:08And yes, as an attorney, I would, as my duty and as a member of the bar,
02:13in certain situations, I would absolutely have to recuse myself.
02:16I did so as chairman.
02:17I did so as a veterans law judge in that world.
02:19And I would do so as appropriate as IG.
02:23Will you commit to continuing any open investigations that were initiated by the last inspector general?
02:29Yes, Senator, I will.
02:31The VA is reportedly planning to fire roughly 80,000 employees.
02:37And recent reporting suggests that the VA is requiring all employees who are working on these staffing cuts to sign nondisclosure agreements.
02:46However, one key role of the office of the inspector general is to independently receive reports of wrongdoing within the VA from employees.
02:53And the inspector general has this obligation regardless of whether the employee has signed an NDA.
02:58Will you commit that your office will independently and thoroughly investigate any reports of wrongdoing at the VA regardless of any NDAs that employees have been forced to sign?
03:09Thank you, Senator Hassan.
03:10And absolutely, yes, I will.
03:12Well, thank you.
03:12I'm glad to hear you're committed to conducting thorough independent reviews of any allegations of wrongdoing.
03:18And I yield the rest of my time.
03:20Thank you, Senator Hassan.
03:21Senator King.
03:24I want to thank you for the time you took for us to discuss your history.
03:30You were eminently qualified for this position up to about January of 2020.
03:35And I don't want to just keep going over and over, but I guess one thing, we learned yesterday that the office of the inspector general in the VA is being cut by 100 people.
03:48Were you aware of that?
03:49No, Senator, I was not.
03:51Well, check the budget.
03:53You're going to lose 100 people before you even walk through the door.
