Corsi confirmed as CEO of Nebraska DHHS despite lawmaker questions

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature on Monday confirmed Steve Corsi as CEO of the State Department of Health and Human Services, accepting Gov. Jim Pillen’s controversial pick. 

The vote came after several senators led an organized opposition that raised questions about his past employment and concerns about where he draws the line between his private beliefs and his public job. He was appointed in August, between legislative sessions.

Democratic State Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha joined legislative conservatives in voting to confirm Corsi 28-8 after two hours of debate Monday in the officially nonpartisan Legislature.

State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha and her brother, John, led the questions about Corsi, including many raised from a packet she shared with senators about the nominee’s past actions while in public jobs. 

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who chairs the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, acknowledged his colleagues’ questions about Corsi but supported his confirmation.

“I did have some concerns beforehand,” Hansen said. “Those have been alleviated by his testimony. … So far I like the direction Dr. Corsi has taken the department.”

State Sen. John Cavanaugh asked Health and Human Services Committee members to explain their votes to send Corsi to the floor: “What got you past these obvious concerns?”

Among the concerns the Cavanaughs highlighted was a lack of trust: 

• Corsi earned paychecks from two different state agencies in Missouri and did not stop accepting the double pay until months after saying he would.
• He said he didn’t know about a restraint chair ordered by an employee he managed at a Wyoming juvenile detention facility.
• He worked in 2023 as a private consultant for Epiphany, a Utah-based consulting and training firm, a position he left off his resume and application. Epiphany recommended Corsi to Pillen.
• Years before working at Epiphany, the firm secured state contracts with state governments and a charity where Corsi worked.

“It is clear that Dr. Corsi has exhibited unethical, unprofessional judgment over a decade-plus of his career,” Machaela Cavanaugh said. “Is this the right course for DHHS?”

Said John Cavanaugh: “Maybe there’s an innocent explanation.”

Social media posts

Opposing senators also discussed Corsi’s social media posts, including some he liked or shared that LGBTQ advocates and others described as condescending, rude or hateful.

Corsi has defended his actions on social media as reflecting his conservative worldview and faith. He has said, for example, abortion is not health care, homosexuality is a sin, and the only race is human.

During his confirmation hearing in February, he pushed back on concerns, which were expressed again Monday, that he might put the state at risk of creating a hostile work environment for some employees.

“I believe that everybody should be treated the same, should be cared for and loved and treated with respect and compassion,” Corsi said at the hearing, under questioning.

State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, a candidate for Congress in Nebraska’s 1st District, criticized Corsi for liking or sharing such posts, saying they make him a questionable job candidate. 

“More and more we have to look at what people’s social media says before we put them into executive positions,” she said. “It shows poor judgment, a lack of professionalism.” 

Corsi is being paid $257,000 to manage the state’s largest agency, with a budget of over $3 billion. DHHS oversees programs including child welfare, juvenile detention, public aid, public health and health care oversight.

Pillen’s choice

State Sen. Merv Riepe, a member of the DHHS Committee, echoed the most common testimony from defenders of the Corsi pick — that he was Pillen’s choice.

“I appreciate the background and research compiled by Senator Cavanaugh,” Riepe said of Machaela. “I thought the onion needed to be peeled. … The CEO is an important position in the state.”

Riepe, a former hospital administrator, said he found “Corsi to be a bright individual, who did seem to have a good temperament” and who had “knowledge of administrative accountability.”

Machaela Cavanaugh said Riepe overlooked how Corsi would be seen by someone from one of the groups Corsi has criticized. 

“He makes his employees feel like they are wrong in existing,” she said. “That is a huge problem. That is an HR problem.”

State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha said he would have liked meeting with Corsi, as some other senators had, but said he would have only wanted to do so one-on-one, without staff present.

He said he would have liked to hear more about social media posts Corsi liked or shared about race and the history of slavery in the United States. 

“I would love to have a frank conversation with him without staff around,” McKinney said.

Sens. Machaela Cavanaugh and Megan Hunt of Omaha have said they were told Corsi would only meet with them with staff present. 

Criticism of Corsi continued on the legislative floor after the vote, with Hunt saying her colleagues had deferred too much to the judgment of the governor and the executive branch.

She filed a motion to reconsider the confirmation, but Speaker John Arch decides whether it will be scheduled.

“In 2024, we’re really talking about homosexuality as an opinion?” Hunt said. “That alone is disqualifying.”