Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius misled Congress on Obamacare during hearings on Capital Hill. Pro-life advocates were upset she didn’t provide truthful information about abortion funding under the controversial health care law and Republicans were upset about a wide range of issues on which they felt the HHS Secretary was less than forthcoming.
Now, committee chairman Rep Darrell Issa has warned Sebelius in a letter that her testimony on Obamacare may result in perjury charges.
As Right Wing News reports:
“Witnesses who purposely give false or misleading testimony during a congressional hearing may be subject to criminal liability under Section 1001 of Title of 18 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits ‘knowingly and willfully’ making materially false statements to Congress,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote in a letter Wednesday, according to the Washington Examiner. “With that in mind, I write to request that you correct the record and to implore you to be truthful with the American public about matters related to Obamacare going forward.”
Issa honed in on the secretary’s testimony that there were no security issues associated with the exchange website, despite evidence to the contrary.
“Providing false or misleading testimony to Congress is a serious matter,” Issa said in the letter. “Documents and testimony obtained by the Committee, including information provided by Teresa Fryer, the Chief Information Security Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the MITRE Corporation, a contractor hired by HHS to conduct security assessments of healthcare.gov, show that your testimony was false and misleading.”
The Examiner reported:
Sebelius’ claim that MITRE conducted “ongoing testing” of the Obamacare website was false, Issa said, citing [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chief Information Security Officer Teresa] Fryer’s testimony to committee staff that the company only did testing by rounds, with the last pre-launch round taking place on Sep. 20. The next round did not begin until Dec. 10.
Issa also said that Sebelius’ claim that MITRE recommended HHS proceed with the launch of the website was also false, because MITRE says it was never consulted.
The Republican investigator also disputes Sebelius’ statement that “no one… suggested that the risks outweighed the importance of moving forward.”
