House Republicans from the Ways and Means Committee may issue a subpoena to HHS over information on public relation campaigns and contracts promoting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Republicans said they have not received a response from HHS answering their questions about the use of taxpayer dollars for the promotional work. Charles Boustany, MD, chairman of the subcommittee on oversight, sent a letter for documents by June 1.
HHS did not respond with documents, signaling a follow-up letter from Dr. Boustany. As of Oct. 15, HHS still had not produced any documents in response to the inquiry.
"The Department's failure to provide a single responsive document to the Committee's reasonable requests leave only two possibilities: Either the department is unable to keep track of the work products it buys with taxpayer dollars, or the department is trying to delay any response until after this year's election," according to the committee's letter.
If HHS does not provide documents by Oct. 31, the committee said it "will be forced to consider issuing a subpoena."
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Republicans said they have not received a response from HHS answering their questions about the use of taxpayer dollars for the promotional work. Charles Boustany, MD, chairman of the subcommittee on oversight, sent a letter for documents by June 1.
HHS did not respond with documents, signaling a follow-up letter from Dr. Boustany. As of Oct. 15, HHS still had not produced any documents in response to the inquiry.
"The Department's failure to provide a single responsive document to the Committee's reasonable requests leave only two possibilities: Either the department is unable to keep track of the work products it buys with taxpayer dollars, or the department is trying to delay any response until after this year's election," according to the committee's letter.
If HHS does not provide documents by Oct. 31, the committee said it "will be forced to consider issuing a subpoena."
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