Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ways and Means issues subpoena for Obamacare P.R. documents

The House Ways and Means Committee has subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, demanding that she reveal details of how the agency is promoting the health reform law, according to the committee.
The election may have iced efforts to repeal the law on the whole, but House Republicans are indicating that they’re full speed ahead on intense oversight of how the Obama administration is enacting the legislation.
The subpoena demands that Sebelius turn over documents about how taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the law through public relations, advertising and message testing. The committee is asking for all documents covering the period from January 2008 to today.
It comes from committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and oversight subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany (R-La.), who is facing a run-off election next month.
Camp and Boustany sent a letter to Sebelius on Oct. 24, threatening a subpoena if documents were not handed over by Oct. 31. They sent an initial request to Sebelius for the material in June.
“The lack of response leads me to believe that this administration is either unwilling to disclose why they are using taxpayer dollars to market their unpopular law or are unable to keep track of how those taxpayer dollars are being spent,” Camp said in a statement Wednesday. “Either way, the American people deserve to know where their hard-earned money is going … after months of being unresponsive, I am left with no choice but to compel their cooperation.”

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