On Thursday, May 8, Hoover research fellow Lanhee J. Chen appeared before the US Senate Committee on Finance regarding the confirmation of his appointment to the Social Security Advisory Board. Chen was nominated by President Obama in September. He has extensive experience in policy making and academic expertise in health care.
He was previously the policy director for the Romney-Ryan presidential campaign, as well as Romney’s chief policy adviser, during which time he developed policies on a variety of issues, including health care. His policy work with Romney led POLITICO to name him one of “50 Politicos to watch” in 2012. He was also a health policy adviser to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign in 2004. In addition to policy making, he is also an affiliated faculty with the Public Policy Program at Stanford University. In those roles, Chen designed, and continues to advocate for, significant reforms to Social Security.
The Social Security Advisory Board is an independent and bipartisan board of seven experts that advise the president, Congress, and the commissioner of Social Security on how to improve Social Security. The experts, who must be confirmed by the Senate, serve six-year terms.
You can read Chen’s statement here. You can watch Chen’s confirmation hearing here (Chen's introduction begins at 00:53:50; Chen's statement begins at 01:15:14).
