CMS nominee moves on a party-line vote toward confirmation

Seema Verma, the nominee to become administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 16. A sharply divided Senate Finance Committee on Thursday morning recommended the confirmation of Seema Verma, a health-care consultant who has reshaped Medicaid in several states, to run the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. On a vote of 13 to 12, with every Democrat in opposition, Verma’s nomination now moves to the full Senate, where the Republican majority has been moving swiftly to give its seal of approval to each of President Trump’s nominees who have come to a floor vote.