The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Security of HealthCare.gov." Witnesses to be announced.
House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders recently sent letters to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and four government contractors involved with implementation of the exchanges regarding rising security concerns surrounding the Federally Facilitated Marketplace. In addition to HHS, the committee requested documents and information from Creative Computing Solutions, Inc., Foreground Security Inc., MITRE Corporation, and Verizon Terremark.
Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Subcommittee Chairman Murphy commented, “It is critical that the administration do everything in its power to protect Americans’ sensitive personal information. And yet, despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on a website that is still not fully operational, more concerns are being raised each day about the security of HealthCare.gov. Americans deserve the peace of mind that their personal information will be safe, but the administration has yet to demonstrate they are capable or competent to deliver."
During an October 30 hearing with Secretary Sebelius, committee member and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers (R-MI) submitted for the record a document signed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner that states “Due to system readiness issues, the [Security Control Assessment] SCA was only partly completed. This constitutes a risk that must be accepted and mitigated to support the Marketplace Day 1 operations." The memo explains, “there are inherent security risks with not having all code tested in a single environment."
The Majority Memorandum, a witness list, and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted.
