Stephen Hahn, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration, sat through a Senate confirmation hearing yesterday during which lawmakers hammered him about vaping, the Washington Post reports.
President Trump nominated Hahn, a trained radiation oncologist, to be FDA commissioner earlier this month. Hahn is the chief medical executive of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and, before that, served as the chair of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is to replace Scott Gottlieb, who left the commissioner post earlier this year. Norman Sharpless had filled the slot in the interim, but has returned to the National Cancer Institute.
During his confirmation hearing yesterday, lawmakers asked Hahn how he would address teen vaping in the US, CNBC says. President Trump, it notes, had back a ban on flavored e-cigarettes but has since backed off. Hahn told the committee he is in favor of "aggressive action," but has not been involved in administration decision-making.
According to the Post, Hahn repeatedly said that he would use "science and data" to address a number of issues facing the FDA, including vaping, but also the importation of drugs from abroad.
Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the committee chair, says it is to vote on Hahn's nomination at the beginning of December, the Post notes.