Pete Stark: “Mr. Chairman, this is probably the lowest-priced amendment to be offered to this bill, but what it does basically is…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is probably the lowest-priced amendment to be offered to this bill, but what it does basically is takes away $84,500 from the Secretary of HHS's management budget. The purpose of the amendment is to establish firmly the rights of Congress in regard to getting information from the administration. Very quickly, during the course of drafting and debating the Medicare bill that dealt with prescription drugs, the head of CMS Mr. Scully threatened improperly the actuary for CMS and caused this actuary to withhold information from the House of Representatives which would have indicated that the drug bill would not cost $400 billion, but more like $530 or $540 billion. That is a $140 billion difference. It may very well have affected the way many of us might have voted on that bill. It was substantial information. This information was not classified, and it comes under a bill that started back in 1912 when then Senator LaFollette indicated that we should have this information in the normal course of our proceedings available to us. According to GAO, who has recently suggested that the point of this legislation be enacted, never in the history of that legislation since 1912 has anybody violated this law until now.”