Nominations of Thomas Bell to be Inspector General, Health and Human Services, Arjun Mody, to be Deputy Commissioner, Social Security, and Jeff Goettman and Julie Callahan to United States Trade Representative positions

Senate Finance Committee
215 Dirksen

10/29/2025 at 10:00AM

Full committee nomination hearing.

Nominees:

  • Arjun Mody, of New Jersey, to be Deputy Commissioner, Social Security Administration for the term expiring January 19, 2031, vice David Fabian Black, term expired.
  • Jeffrey Goettman, of Virginia, to be a Deputy United States Trade Representative (Africa, Western Hemisphere, Europe, the Middle East, Environment, Labor, and Industrial Competitiveness), with the Rank of Ambassador, vice Jayme Ray White.
  • Julie Callahan, of the District of Columbia, to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative, with the rank of Ambassador, vice Douglas J. McKalip, resigned.
  • Thomas March Bell, of Virginia, to be Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services, vice Christi A. Grimm

Arjun Mody, a top Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) advisor, ran Barrasso’s Senate Opportunity Fund, and shepherded the confirmations of Pete Hegseth at the Defense Department, Kash Patel at the FBI and Frank Bisignano at the Social Security Administration. He was also a staffer for Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Carly Fiorina’s California Senate campaign.

Jeff Goettman, now at the Executive Office of the President, was Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s chief of staff after a long career in finance and serving in Trump’s first administration on the Ex-Im Bank and in Treasury.

Dr. Julie Callahan serves as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs and Commodity Policy. She previously served as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative and Senior Director in the USTR Agriculture Office and at the U.S. Food and Druge Administration. Dr. Callahan earned her doctoral degree in Marine Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Science in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science from MIT. As a civil servant, she has been an “unusually partisan” supporter of Trump. Her scientific research was on dissolved organic matter, including phytoplankton blooms, in estuaries in the United States and China.

As Inspector General for Health and Human Services, Thomas March Bell will oversee fraud, waste and abuse audits of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which spend more than $1 trillion annually. Bell currently serves as general counsel for House Republicans and has worked for GOP politicians and congressional offices for decades. The president’s nomination of this anti-abortion extremist is a “brazenly political” one. Bell was ousted from Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after a state audit showed he improperly authorized a nearly $8,000 payment to the agency’s former spokesman. He was staff director for House Republicans’ 2016 investigation into Planned Parenthood. During the first Trump administration, Bell helped create the Conscience and Religious Freedom division within the HHS Office for Civil Rights. Bell held leadership positions in Gary Bauer and Pat Robinson’s presidential campaigns.