A nonprofit watchdog announced Wednesday that it is suing the Department of Health and Human Services for documents related to the government’s consulting contract worth nearly $400,000 with MIT Economics Professor Jonathan Gruber.
Gruber came to public attention last year when a video became public of him saying “lack of transparency [was] a huge political advantage” during the debate on Obamacare. He also said supporters of the healthcare program took advantage of “the stupidity of the American voter.”
Judicial Watch said its suit is the result of the government’s failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents. The sole-source consulting contract was for advice from Gruber on writing legislation creating Obamacare.
In its November 2014 FOIA, Judicial Watch sought “any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to contracts, and/or consultancy agreements between HHS and Dr. Jonathan Gruber, including but not limited to [a] contract awarded June 19, 2009 for ‘Technical Assistance in Evaluating Options for National Healthcare Reform’ (Contract Award Number HHSP23320091301EC).”
Clint D. Druk of the HHS Program Support Center wrote in FedBiz Ops that “the Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, intends to negotiate with Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D. on a sole sources basis for technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform … because only one source is reasonably available to satisfy agency requirements.”
The FOIA suit announced Tuesday is the latest of nearly a dozen filed since 2010 by Judicial Watch seeking documents related to Obamacare.
“From its inception, its passage, its implementation, and its enforcement, ‘lack of transparency’ has been essential to keeping Obamacare alive. President Obama’s knowing lies about how Americans could keep their doctors and insurance under Obamacare show that he is no better than Gruber in his contempt for ‘stupid’ American voters,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in announcing the suit.
The Daily Caller has estimated that the federal government has paid Gruber “at least $4 million” since 2000.
The Judicial Watch suit comes during Sunshine Week, a week-long, nationwide commemoration of transparency and accountability in government and passage in 1966 of the FOIA. The commemorations also recognize James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, father of the U.S. Constitution and the country’s third president.
