Idaho Child Welfare Leader Pushed Rapid Reforms in Brief Tenure Before Trump Appointment To Federal Office

 

Update Oct. 7, 2025: The U.S. Senate confirmed Alex Adams as assistant secretary of the federal Administration for Children and Families – along with dozens of other presidential nominees – by a vote of 51 to 47. 

At a public hearing earlier this year in the Boise state capitol building, President Trump’s nominee to oversee child welfare, Head Start and other family support programs showed hints of how he might lead. 

Alex Adams — then-head of Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare — held his own when confronted by a Republican-led panel of state lawmakers. They demanded answers about $14 million of cost overruns in the foster care program Adams had been overseeing.

“Can you explain to me how that’s gonna be saving us money over the long term, as far as that investment goes?” state Rep. David Leavitt asked.

“You can always sneak out the backdoor, but we’ll catch ya!” quipped the committee chair, John Vander Woude.

Adams, a former vice president for a drug store trade group and state budget chief, quickly won the lawmakers over. He promised the panel a less costly, more orderly child welfare system, one that addresses families’ struggles earlier — before children need to be pulled from their homes. He described a dire need to recruit more foster parents to keep children out of more expensive and ineffective group facilities and last-resort AirBNBs.

“We’re either going to build the fence at the top of the cliff, or you’re gonna pay for more ambulances at the bottom,” Adams said, quoting a colleague.