WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), today announced a hearing for Friday, July 8, 2016, at 9:15 a.m. in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “The ACA’s Cost Sharing Reduction Program: Ramifications of the Administration’s Decision on the Source of Funding for the CSR Program."
Despite never getting an appropriation for the payments in the Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) program, the administration has issued more than $5 billion in payments. The Energy and Commerce Committee began its investigation on the CSR program in February 2015, with the Ways and Means Committee. Over the course of the investigation, each committee has issued subpoenas to HHS, Treasury, and OMB for documents.
At the hearing members will have the opportunity to dig deeper into the committee’s concerns about the legality of these payments, and the implications of the administration’s decisions to circumvent the appropriation process. Those implications go far beyond the program, or even Obamacare.
“The committee’s investigation has revealed that this administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the president’s health care law, even when its most obvious faults are called into question," said Chairman Murphy. “The facts are simple - the administration has been and continues to fund the CSR program without the Constitutionally required appropriation from Congress. Rather, they are raiding appropriations dedicated to tax refunds to issue billions of dollars in payments. The American people deserve answers. We will continue to ask these most basic questions, including who made the decisions and what the administration’s legal reasoning is for this course of action."
The Majority Memorandum, a witness list, and witness testimony will be available here as they are posted. See Also
* #SubOversight Examines Implications of Unlawful Obamacare Spending On Heels of Report
