Non-Answers from the “Most Transparent” Administration
In his exchange with Secretary Sebelius, Senator Hatch noted that two-thirds of Republican written requests for information dating to June 2010 had not received an acknowledgement or response. In addition, a new report by the Congressional Research Service found that more than three-quarters of rules implementing the health care law were issued WITHOUT public comment.
In the same exchange, Secretary Sebelius also refused to answer the question of whether or not she has the authority to waive the Medicaid mandates imposed in the health care law. As a reminder, it’s been 76 days (and counting) since Governors made the first of multiple requests for flexibility from such mandates – and the Secretary has yet to give a straight answer as to whether or not she can relieve their massive fiscal burdens by granting flexibility from the mandates. Conversely, it took only twelve days for the Secretary to respond to Chairman Baucus’ letter about the impact of H.R. 1 – a bill that Democrats admitted had no chance of passing.