President Donald Trump has named Thomas March Bell to replace Christi Grimm as inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The watchdog position, currently staffed by acting Inspector General Juliet Hodgkins, evaluates agencies and conducts investigations designed to improve transparency and stop fraud, waste and abuse.
Although Bell would be tasked with assessing huge federal health programs through a nonpartisan lens, his nomination is already viewed with skepticism based on past roles within the government.
In 1997, the Virginia Department of Education forced Bell to resign as deputy director after he authorized nearly $8,000 in payments and taxpayer funds to a former spokesperson, The Washington Post reported at the time. He is currently chief counsel for House Republicans.
Bell previously served as counsel on other congressional committees and as senior counsel for trafficking in persons for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. From November 2015 to January 2017, he was staff director for a House investigative panel (PDF) against Planned Parenthood clinics and their alleged sale of fetal tissue for research.
The panel recommended the National Institutes of Health stop funding the organizations, reported ProPublica, and Planned Parenthood won a court case against Texas when the state attempted to defund the organization. Bell was senior advisor and chief of staff in the Office for Civil Rights at HHS during Trump’s first term. Democrats objected (PDF) to Bell’s appointment at the time, saying his past policy stances meant he could not be impartial.
Bell helped create a division for conscience and religious freedom under the Office for Civil Rights in January 2018. That office was still listed in a hierarchy chart in September, but the page is now offline.
Grimm sued the Trump administration in February, seeking to reclaim her job and win injunctive relief. She said the actions by Trump to fire inspector generals without notice or rationale broke the law.
She was also fired in Trump’s first term, but she continued to serve as acting inspector general as her replacement was not confirmed before Trump left office. Grimm was named as the agency’s sixth inspector general under President Joe Biden in 2022.