Top congressional Democrats want a federal watchdog to examine if the Trump administration violated ethical rules by promoting the Republicans’ American Health Care Act.
House and Senate Democrats sent a letter Wednesday to the Government Accountability Office complaining that the Department of Health and Human Services promoted Republican legislation to partially repeal Obamacare.
The Democrats say that at least two of HHS’ Twitter accounts promoted the bill, which passed the House last month but is being debated in the Senate.
“These actions appear to violate restrictions on the use of the department’s appropriations for supporting the enactment of legislation pending before Congress,” according to the letter.
The letter says @HHSGov and @HHSMedia accounts repeatedly “called for passage of the pending Republican healthcare legislation, explicitly using its acronym, AHCA.”
The letter also references a Los Angeles Times report that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma told insurers they would receive Obamacare-related subsidies if they publicly supported the AHCA. Verma has denied the report.
The letter points to a federal law that that bans using federal funds for “public electronic communications that support legislation before Congress.”
HHS responded that it has received the letter and will review it.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., signed the letter.
