| Washington, D.C. -- Republicans on the Committee on Ways and Means today voted to keep the American public in the dark about why Administration estimates of the cost of last year’s Medicare reform bill were withheld from Congress before and during the debate on the bill.
At a hearing requested by the Ways and Means Committee Democrats pursuant to Rule XI, Clause 2(j)(1), two of the duly invited witnesses refused to testify: Doug Badger, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Thomas Scully, Former Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) made motions to compel each of these two witnesses to testify through subpoenas. Committee Republicans used a procedure known as a motion to "table" to prevent any debate on the merits of subpoenaing the witnesses. On two party line votes, Committee Republicans voted to keep the two witnesses from having to come and testify. The Committee Republicans also voted along party lines against having the two witnesses that did show up - Jeffrey Flick, Regional Administrator for CMS and Leslie Norwalk, Acting Deputy Administrator for CMS - from testifying under oath. Furthermore, the Chairman stated at one point that he wanted to allow less than an hour of questioning of the witnesses.
"The White House is clearly trying to stonewall and now senior House Republicans are complicit in that coverup," said Rep. Rangel, the Ranking Democrat of the Committee on Ways and Means. "There is only one conclusion that can be made to the Republicans shutting down our attempts to hear from Scully and Badger - there is something they are trying to hide. Perhaps Republican members did know about the higher estimates and do not want people to know they kept them from their Congressional colleagues. Perhaps they think that the President or cabinet officials knew and are trying to prevent the public from knowing it. We don’t know. But we do know that the Republicans on this Committee do not want the full truth to come out."
"The main issue is who knew about the actuarial figure and why wasn’t it disclosed in a timely fashion," said senior Ways and Means Member Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.) "We voted in this Congress on major legislation while there was information that was hidden from us by some in the Administration. The public has a right to know why and who knew. There was a coverup of this information and we want to know how high up the coverup went."
Mr. Badger’s excuse for not testifying before the Committee was submitted to Chairman Bill Thomas yesterday by Counsel to the President Alberto R. Gonzales. He stated "It is longstanding White House policy, applied during administrations of both parties, that members of the White House staff should decline invitations to testify at congressional hearings."
This claim contradicts extensive House precedents. Under the Clinton Administration, Republicans insisted on calling dozens of White House aides before Congress to testify in public hearings or depositions. The Government Reform Committee alone took sworn testimony from 45 White House staff, including several White House chiefs of staff and White House counsels. Many White House officials have testified in the Bush Administration. Most recently, the Chairman of the President’s Counsel of Economic Advisors, Gregory Mankiw testified on February 10, 2004, before the Joint Economic Committee.
"Executive privilege only applies when an official has had conversations directly with the President. In invoking executive privilege, we must assume that the topic of withholding these estimates was a topic of conversation between Mr. Badger and the President himself," Rep. Rangel said. "In any event, accounts of conversations or exchanges between White House officials and the drug industry or members of Congress are clearly not a place where separation of powers applies. By letting Badger get away with answering no questions, they show that they are scared of what would happen if what he knows became public."
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