House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Friday that a top health official appears to have misled his panel over his role in dealing with illegal immigrant girls, suggesting that the official was, in fact, tracking pregnancies and menstrual cycles.
Mr. Nadler demanded that Scott Lloyd, who as former chief of the Office of Refugee Resettlement oversaw Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), come back to the committee to clarify his testimony.
According to Mr. Nadler, Mr. Lloyd did keep a spreadsheet tracking pregnancies among the female UAC in government-run shelters.
He said Mr. Lloyd obfuscated that spreadsheet during testimony last month under questioning from panel Democrats.
“We were troubled by your responses at the time — but we now have reason to believe that your responses are inconsistent with documentation that has been made public since your testimony,” Mr. Nadler wrote in a letter to Mr. Lloyd.
The Health and Human Services Department, in a statement, rejected Mr. Nadler’s contention.
“We have reviewed the matter and have concluded that Mr. Lloyd’s testimony was accurate. Any statements to the contrary are incorrect,” the department said.
No indication was given of how Mr. Lloyd would respond to Mr. Nadler’s demand that he personally appear again to clarify his remarks.
Mr. Lloyd is no longer at ORR and instead serves as a senior adviser at the Health Department’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives.
While at ORR, Mr. Lloyd found himself in the middle of a number of major controversies, including a legal battle over whether the illegal immigrant girls could force the government to provide transportation and staffing to facilitate their abortions.
A lower court ruled that the government did, in fact, need to facilitate the abortions.
Mr. Lloyd has admitted in that court case that he did take a personal interest in those cases, seeking to promote an interest in the life of the fetus.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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