Dr. Boozman's Check-up
I joined several of my GOP Senate colleagues asking the White House about details on efforts by federal agencies to help implement the President’s health care law - specifically "agencies with no responsibilities" to implement or promote the law. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), at least 21 federal agencies have been identified as assisting in implementation efforts.
In a letter to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, we write: "We write to ask for information about the activities being undertaken by twenty or more federal agencies with no responsibilities under the President's health care law in the implementation and promotion of that law, specifically about what the agencies are doing, what funds the agencies are spending, and what authorities the agencies are using."
We are concerned about these efforts because as we state in the letter these responsibilities “appear to specifically require agencies to provide information and undertake activities in support of the health care law regardless of their statutory missions and responsibilities."
The letter states “Given that the Administration spent the last several months warning of alleged catastrophe from cutting approximately $85.3 billion out of a $3 trillion budget as part of sequestration, it is particularly surprising that unrelated resources, which previously could not be reduced, are now being used to implement or promote the health care law.”
We also pointed to additional efforts reported recently, such as Secretary Duncan’s statement in a recent interview that there is a team at the Department of Education currently helping with implementation.
Many of my colleagues have raised concerns over previous reports of administration efforts to promote the law outside of what Congress has allowed. Last month, 19 senators, including myself, wrote to Secretary Duncan questioning the Department of Education's involvement in implementing ObamaCare.
Click here to read the letter to the White House Counsel.
Related Files
- Letter to WH Counsel on Obamacare Implementation - White House Counsel on Obamacare Implementation Final.pdf (3.0 MBs)