Robert Charrow, the Greenberg Traurig shareholder picked to serve as general counsel to the U.S.Health and Human Services Department, pledged on Thursday to resistany efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act — regulations that SenateDemocrats said remain the “law of the land” following the failureof Republican-backed reform legislation.

“I am a firm believer in applying the law as written and passedby Congress,” Charrow, a Greenberg Traurig lawyer since 2002, saidat his confirmation hearing before the Senate FinanceCommittee.“And if an action is inconsistent with the law, I willnot approve it.”

With the recent collapse of a so-called skinny repeal of theAffordable Care Act and with President Donald Trump appearing toroot for the law’s failure—”let ObamaCare implode,” he said onTwitter—senators did not mince words about the challenges ahead forCharrow.

“Obviously the effort to fix our nation’s health care systemsuffered a setback recently,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in his opening remarks.Hatch said Charrow might face at times some disagreement betweenthe White House and HHS, and he will be tasked with ensuring that“the laws on the books as written are followed.”

The general counsel post at HHS, added Sen. Ron Wyden, is a“tough job under normal circumstances.”

“I don’t think he’s seen tough until he tries to tackle it asthis point at time,” Wyden said. “Right now, it seems thisadministration is spending a fair amount of time undermining thelaw.” Wyden and other Senate Democrats pressed Charrow for acommitment to uphold the signature achievement of the Obamaadministration, noting Trump’s recent comment that he plans to “letObamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come tous.”

“Being general counsel of the Department of Health and HumanServices is not exactly for the faint-hearted right now,” Wydensaid.

Charrow said he would approach the general counsel job as aneutral arbiter, evaluating the agency’s actions as though he werea federal district judge.

“The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. It is theadministration’s job to faithfully execute that law, and it's goingto be your job to be the honest cop on the beat,” Wyden said. “Ifthe president, the [HHS] secretary or anybody else wants to takesteps that are, in your view, inconsistent with the spirit orletter of the law, it is your job to tell them so. Will you dothat?”

“Yes I will,” Charrow replied. Later in the hearing, when askedwhether he would alert Congress to any push by the Trumpadministration to skirt or sabotage the law, Charrow said, “Peoplewho know me know I have a big mouth.”

Charrow revealed in his financial disclosure his $661,548 salary andbonus at the firm, which includes compensation from January 2016 toApril 6 of this year. In his ethics agreement, Charrow said: “Pursuant to myagreement with the firm, if l am still with the firm on June 30,2017, I will be entitled to receive a midyear distribution based onthe law firm's collections in 2017, through that date. That paymentwould be made at the end of July 2017.”

He identified the value of that midyear distribution at between$15,000 and $50,000. Charrow provided legal services to more than70 companies, many in the health care and retail space, accordingto his disclosure.

Those companies included, according to his financial disclosure,Sanofi US, Playtex Products LLC, Molina Healthcare, Medtronic Inc.,CVS Pharmacy Inc., L’Oreal USA Corp. and Teva PharmaceuticalIndustries Inc.

The Obama administration’s health care department generalcounsel, William Schultz, returned to Zuckerman Spaeder inNovember. Jeffrey Davis has served as the acting general counselsince then. "There's a huge amount of uncertainty. I think therewill be changes," Schultz said in an interview then. "I'm skepticala new administration and particularly the Senate would supportlegislation that would take health insurance away from the 20million people who gained it during the Affordable Care Act"implementation.