Medicare chief draws more fire for refusing to testify

A key Senate Republican Thursday denounced Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Thomas Scully's refusal to testify before the House Small Business Committee Wednesday, saying it does not help the process of government and violates the oath administration officials take when they take office.

"I think it's mainly a snobbery of high-level bureaucrats generally," said Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, during a wide-ranging interview with CongressDaily. Grassley said he ran into similar resistance from Clinton administration officials when he chaired the Senate Aging Committee, but it has generally not been a problem.

Scully defied a subpoena to testify before the House committee, saying administration officials should not appear on the same panel as those they regulate. Scully said his appearance would have set a bad precedent and that normally the Medicare administrator appears alone or with other government officials at hearings.

However, Small Business Committee Chairman Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., who said other administration officials have appeared on panels with businesses before his committee, was outraged and called for Scully's resignation.

House GOP leaders are trying to defuse the spat. "What we want to do is make sure the people who need to testify, testify," Speaker Hastert told reporters Thursday. He called the incident Wednesday "a miscommunication."

At a separate news conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson also said HHS officials were trying to work out an arrangement and that Scully would testify before Manzullo's committee.

"That problem is being taking care of as we speak and Tom Scully will testify," Thompson said at a news conference.

A committee spokesman said the committee is "investigating our options" for how to pursue the matter. Among the possibilities is finding Scully in contempt of Congress, which is a felony.