House Chairmen Clash with HHS over Obamacare Funding Documents

In the latest dust-up over funding the Affordable Care Act, two key House committee chairmen have written to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell demanding more documents relating to the department’s funding of a component program in a way the lawmakers believe Congress did not authorize.

Reps. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce panel, on Friday wrote to Burwell saying that a batch of documents the department sent the committee in the fall were incomplete and heavily redacted.

As part of the lawmakers’ oversight responsibilities, they wrote, “we have been seeking information about the administration’s decision to fund the Basic Health Program without a congressional appropriation for more than six months. We remain deeply concerned about the administration’s decision, and your agency’s lack of cooperation with this important investigation.”

The issue arose last July when Ellen Murray, assistant HHS secretary for financial resources, briefed the two committees on implementation of the Basic Health Program, which under Obamacare gives states the ability to provide more affordable coverage for low-income residents and improve continuity of care for people whose income fluctuates above and below the levels of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The lawmakers requested internal HHS documents in September, and received a response in November that “not only failed to provide all requested documents, but also improperly redacted information from the few documents HHS did produce,” Brady and Upton wrote.

Their subsequent request on Dec. 3, they added, has gone unanswered. “Your delay in producing this material to the committee has frustrated the committees’ investigation, and raises serious concerns about your commitment to congressional oversight,” they wrote. Hence the letter gives HHS until Jan. 28 to produce the documents, at which point a subpoena may be in the offing.

HHS spokeswoman Meaghan Smith, in response to query by Government Executive, said via email, “The Basic Health Program provides flexibility and stability to both states and their consumers, and payments to states that choose this option are fully funded under the ACA. The department has provided substantive documents and answers to Congress on this matter, sent a senior administration official to brief the committee, and the secretary has answered questions before the Ways and Means Committee, and we will continue working to address follow-up questions.”

The department staff say they are committed to cooperation with congressional overseers’ requests for information, including those from other committees with questions about its handling of the Affordable Care Act.