Trump transition leader has local ties

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RUSSIA — A member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has close ties to Shelby County.

Andrew Bremberg has been tapped to lead the administration transition team for health and human services. Bamberg’s wife, Maria, is a Russia native. Her parents, Ann and Henry Cordonnier, still live here.

Bremberg told the Sidney Daily News that he can’t talk to the press.

Henry Cordonnier couldn’t be more proud.

“We’re very happy to have Andrew involved in national politics. We’re all thrilled,” he told the Daily News recently. “Our entire family has always been keen on politics. Many times, we worked on campaigns. Maria, my daughter — we worked on campaigns every two years the whole time she was gowing up.”

The Cordonniers have been particularly active in the right to life movement. Ann manages the Shelby County Right to Life Thrift Store in Sidney.

“We’ve been a pro-life family,” Cordonnier said. “We go to all those events.”

After graduation from college, Maria’s first job was in then state Rep. Jim Jordan’s office as an administrative assistant.

“He wanted Maria to be his chief in Washington, but she’s busy raising babies of her own,” Cordonnier said.

He is pleased that Trump campaigned on a pro-life platform.

“A lot of people are wondering what kind of president Trump will be. Time will tell,” Cordonnier said. “You elect more than a president. He’s going to appoint thousands of people like Andrew and they’re going to run the government. We’re glad thousands of appointees are going to be put in place who are pro-life instead of pro-abortion.”

In a piece in the Nov. 11 issue of the Wall Street Journal, writer Louise Radnofsky reported that “Bremberg, the lead for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), worked in the agency for most of President George W. Bush’s administration as a young aide. He spent the next few years outside of government at an organization that operates federally sponsored research and development centers before taking a job with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and then joining Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s GOP primary presidential campaign as policy director. Mr. Walker was one of the earliest candidates to propose a detailed and far-ranging health-care proposal.

“Mr. Bremberg also served on the abbreviated transition team for Mr. Romney, where he was brought in by more senior members to help on health policy.”

According to a Nov. 11 posting by www.healthcare-informatics.com, “Currently, HHS is led by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who was sworn in as the 22nd Secretary of Health and Human Services on June 9, 2014. Before being tapped by President Obama to lead the agency to replace then-HHS lead Kathleen Sebelius, Burwell served as director of the Office of Management and Budget. As the Secretary of HHS, Burwell oversees more than 77,000 employees and has worked closely with other federal agencies within it, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on healthcare reform, including leading national health IT efforts.

“Now, Bremberg will lead the transition into the new regime. Reports have suggested that Ben Carson, a surgeon and former GOP presidential candidate this year, who ended up losing to Trump in the Republican primaries; Florida Gov. Rick Scott; and Newt Gingrich, an American political consultant and former Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, would all be considered as Burwell’s successor.”

Radnofsky, in the Wall Street Journal article, quoted Tom Barker: “Andrew is a very smart and savvy health policy adviser and he is also very, very committed in his beliefs,” said Tom Barker, for whom Mr. Bremberg worked at HHS, and who invited him to join the Romney transition team. “If the goal is repeal and replace Obamacare, my instincts are, ‘Well that’s not politically feasible.’ Andrew’s: ‘If that’s what we’re told to do, we’re going to find a way to do it.’”

Bremberg’s appointment to lead the HHS transition team is not surprising, according to www.healthcareitnews.com.

“… as Bremberg has been working on the Trump transition team since the Republican convention,” it posted.

By Patricia Ann Speelman

[email protected]

Reach the writer at 937-538-4824.

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