GAO: Ex-Medicare Chief's Pay
Illegal
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2004; Page A21
The Department of Health and Human Services should have
withheld former Medicare chief Thomas A. Scully's salary last
year because Scully wrongly kept a subordinate from giving
Congress higher cost estimates on the Medicare prescription drug
law, the Government Accountability Office said yesterday.
In a 13-page legal opinion, Anthony H. Gamboa, the GAO's
general counsel, said that a 1998 federal law prohibits an agency
from paying a federal official who prevents another employee from
communicating with Congress.
Scully drew harsh criticism from congressional Democrats in
March when longtime Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster said
publicly that Scully had threatened to fire him last year if
Foster told lawmakers that the Medicare bill supported by
President Bush would cost at least $100 billion more than the
$400 billion the White House said it was willing to spend. The
legislation added a prescription drug benefit to the popular
Medicare program, which provides health coverage for seniors.
The question of the bill's probable cost was a major issue
last fall, when House GOP leaders barely got enough votes to pass
the measure. Throughout the debate, legislative backers said the
bill would cost $395 billion over 10 years -- a figure the White
House did not dispute. After Bush signed the measure into law,
however, the administration said the cost would be $534
billion.
Bill Pierce, an HHS spokesman, said agency officials believe
that HHS and Scully acted appropriately and within the law. He
said both the Bush and Clinton administrations have regarded the
law cited by Gamboa as unconstitutional.
"The facts are that the executive branch is responsible for
the operation of the federal government," he said. "It's no
surprise that the GAO, which is an arm of Congress, would come
down with a decision supporting the perspective of the
legislative branch in this matter. . . . This is all being pushed
by what we think is pure political motivation, mostly by members
of Congress who opposed the prescription drug bill."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who signed the request to the
GAO, said Scully should pay back his $145,600 annual salary.
"This was a corruption of the process at the highest levels,"
Lautenberg said in a statement. ". . . What is still unclear is
who in the Bush White House ordered Mr. Scully not to reveal this
information."
Scully, who now works for a law firm, did not return two calls
yesterday by The Washington Post. Asked by the Associated Press
whether he would return his salary, Scully said: "I'm not sure
that's relevant. It's not up to GAO anyway." He also said that
the GAO did not interview him.
An earlier investigation by the inspector general of HHS found
that, although administration officials used aggressive methods
to keep the higher cost estimates from Congress, they did not
violate the law. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service
said in May that the official threats against Foster probably
broke the law, a finding the Justice Department disputed.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a statement that the
GAO report "affirmed what should have been obvious all along. The
Bush administration illegally withheld information about the true
cost of the Medicare bill from the Congress for political
purposes."
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