Parliamentary work · NW–10
What the Bundestag's own records show: four electoral terms, the committees and inquiries she sat on, a leadership role in her parliamentary group, and — as a minister — speeches, questions and the oath of office.
Compiled from the Bundestag's member biographies and disclosures, plenary text archive, roll-call records and ministry speech transcripts.
Register
Committee assignments as listed in the Bundestag's biography for each term. Archived entries generally show the state of memberships at the end of a term; changes during a term are not always visible.
| Term | Mandate | Full member / office | Deputy member / other bodies | Group role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18th2013–2017 | State list, Baden-Württemberg | Committee on Internal Affairs; 1st Committee of Inquiry ("NSA") — Obfrau; panel under Art. 13(6) Basic Law; Joint Committee | Committee on Labour and Social Affairs; Subcommittee on Municipal Affairs | — |
| 19thfrom 5 Dec 2018 | State list (successor to Stephan Harbarth) | Internal Affairs and Community; Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection; 2nd Committee of Inquiry (car toll) — deputy chair; Commission on electoral-law reform — Obfrau; COVID-19 parliamentary advisory body — Obfrau | Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (deputy; voting member of its working group on migration, asylum and integration) | — |
| 20th2021–2025 | Constituency 276, Odenwald–Tauber | Judicial Appointments Committee (elected January 2022) | Committee on Internal Affairs; Legal Affairs Committee | Parliamentary Secretary, CDU/CSU group (opposition) |
| 21stsince 2025 | Constituency 276, Odenwald–Tauber | Federal Minister of Health (6 May 2025 – 29 July 2026); Federal Minister for Special Tasks and Head of the Federal Chancellery (since 29 July 2026) | — | Parliamentary Secretary until 2025 |
Committee participation
The Bundestag is often described as a "working parliament": most of its legislative work happens not in plenary debate but in standing committees, where bills are examined line by line, experts are heard and amendments negotiated before the plenary votes. Members are assigned to committees by their parliamentary groups, in proportion to group strength. A full member votes; a deputy member stands in when a full member of the same group is absent and may attend all meetings.
Her assignments fall into a clear pattern: internal affairs and legal affairs, with the oversight bodies that belong to them. Committees of inquiry are the Bundestag's strongest oversight instrument — set up on the demand of a quarter of members, with powers to take evidence modelled on criminal procedure. Within them, each group's Obmann or Obfrau leads its questioning and coordinates its assessment; the deputy chair stands in for the chair in conducting hearings. She held the first role in the NSA inquiry and the second in the car-toll inquiry.
Less visible bodies also appear in the record: the panel that oversees acoustic surveillance of private homes under Article 13(6) of the Basic Law; the Joint Committee, the emergency parliament for a state of defence; and, in the 19th term, the commission set up to reform federal electoral law — a subject that would later reshape the system under which she was elected in 2025 (see Constituency).
Group role · 2021–2025
The Parlamentarische Geschäftsführer — usually translated as Parliamentary Secretaries or parliamentary managers — are elected by their group and run its parliamentary operations. The CDU/CSU group has several, led by a First Parliamentary Secretary. She held the role through the opposition years of the 20th term.
Negotiating the sitting-week agenda, debate slots and speaking times with the other groups, including in the Council of Elders.
Allocating the group's speaking time to members and making sure enough members are present for votes.
Advising on the Rules of Procedure, tabling motions, requests for debates and questions, and handling procedural disputes in plenary.
Coordinating the group's internal business, staff and resources between the chair, working groups and members.
Using the minority rights the Rules of Procedure give opposition groups — topical hours, major interpellations, committee-of-inquiry demands — to hold the government to account.
From the government bench · 2025–2026
As Federal Minister of Health she appeared in the Bundestag to defend her department's budget, introduce government bills and answer questions. The four appearances below are documented by official sources. They belong to her former office; she now speaks for the Chancellery.
She set out the financial pressure on the health system: per-capita health spending of around €6,000, more than doubled in twenty years, while average gross earnings grew considerably more slowly. She pointed to the commissions reviewing health and long-term care finances.
In the debate on the adopted health budget of €21.8 billion she argued for fundamental structural change to preserve the solidarity-based system. The budget included an increased loan to long-term care insurance and additional funds for health security, women's health and addiction prevention.
In the Bundestag's government question time she discussed plans for a Health Security Act: a legal framework for crises up to the defence case, with clear responsibilities, treatment capacities, stockpiling and a digital situational picture of the health system. The bill had not been adopted when she left the ministry.
Introducing the government bill (Drucksache 21/5922), she described more than 350 medical registers in Germany whose data "lie unconnected side by side", and proposed uniform federal rules on quality standards, less reporting bureaucracy for doctors and legal certainty for data use. The bill was referred to the Health Committee.
„Wenn wir unser Solidarsystem grundsätzlich erhalten wollen, dann müssen wir es grundlegend verändern.“
„Wir schaffen Rechtssicherheit für die Datennutzung.“
Article 64(2) Basic Law
Article 64(2) of the Basic Law requires the Federal Chancellor and the federal ministers, on assuming office, to take before the Bundestag the oath laid down for the Federal President in Article 56. Nina Warken took this oath as a member of the Merz cabinet when the new federal government was sworn in on 6 May 2025.
Her move from the Ministry of Health to the Federal Chancellery on 29 July 2026 did not involve a new oath. The Bundestag record for 8 September 2026 — the first sitting week after the summer recess — lists only the two newcomers to the cabinet, Carsten Linnemann and Steffen Bilger, as sworn in by Bundestag President Julia Klöckner; Warken appears there only as Linnemann's predecessor at the Ministry of Health.
The six-week interval between the newcomers' appointment and their oath prompted a constitutional-law debate. A commentary published by Legal Tribune Online argued that deferring the oath until after the recess was incompatible with the Basic Law; the government's position was that it could be taken in the first regular sitting, avoiding a special session of parliament. See Criticism & Controversies.
Roll-call record
Most Bundestag decisions are taken by show of hands, so individual votes are not recorded. Only roll-call votes (namentliche Abstimmungen) produce a public record of each member's decision. One such vote is documented here because it is frequently referred to.
30 June 2017 · 18th Bundestag
Bill of the Bundesrat (Drucksachen 18/6665 and 18/12989). The CDU/CSU leadership had released the vote as a matter of individual conscience.
Source: German Bundestag, roll-call vote of 30 June 2017. The record documents the vote only; it does not contain reasons, and none are attributed here.
As minister, she steered the GKV contribution-rate stabilisation act through the Bundestag, where it passed on 10 July 2026 by 318 votes to 284 with 4 abstentions; that vote and the criticism of the law are covered on Health financing and Criticism and controversies.