The Foster Affair
Published: July 13, 2004
If subverting informed decision-making were illegal, Thomas Scully, the Bush administration's former top Medicare official, would be in trouble. The Health and Human Services Department reported last week that before the vote on the huge Medicare reform bill last November, Mr. Scully threatened to fire the agency's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if he released estimates to Congress showing that the bill could cost as much as 50 percent more than the White House had let on.
But the report said that Mr. Scully had broken no law. Moreover, because he is no longer with Medicare — he now lobbies for drug companies — he faces no disciplinary action.
The Bush administration would no doubt love to have the issue end there. But Congress should not allow that. Ordinary citizens and their representatives have a right to be informed about public policy. The White House cannot continue to get away with treating Congress as some pesky organization with which it needn't share information.
In absolving Mr. Scully of breaking any law, the Health and Human Services Department relied on a legal analysis by the Justice Department that strongly suggested the estimates were protected by executive privilege. But federal employees also have a legal right to communicate with lawmakers, and in this case Congress had explicitly asked Mr. Foster for his cost estimates.
Regardless of the legal technicalities, it is a terrible policy to deprive legislators of information they need to make informed choices. Mr. Foster has said that he shared his estimates not only with Mr. Scully, but also with Doug Badger, President Bush's health policy adviser. Both Mr. Scully and Mr. Badger declined an invitation to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee in April. The committee should call both men again, under subpoena if necessary, to answer questions about what looks like a conspiracy to keep Congress in the dark. |
