Henry Waxman: “I want to clarify why we do not, as submitted to us, have elaborate protections for information that private sector…”

“I want to clarify why we do not, as submitted to us, have elaborate protections for information that private sector employees might have access to if they come here to work at the Federal Government level. We are told we have protections because there is a lifetime ban from disclosing this information. Well, the fact of the matter is, that is practically unenforceable. Someone comes and works at the Department of Health and Human Services from a pharmaceutical company, from a private pharmaceutical company, and they see the database which is kept confidential about the lowest prices. We prohibit them from going back to their previous job and giving them that information. How are you going to enforce it? It would be far better not to have them have access to it. They can do other things at the Federal level without having access to that kind of confidential information. The same would be true with the Environmental Protection Agency. If you come from a chemical company and the EPA has data on chemicals, it may well put a private sector corporation at a financial advantage if their employee comes back and gives them that information. So the Committee on the Judiciary insisted on a restriction against disclosure. What I think we need is to have a restriction on the access to that information.”