Marilyn Tavenner's deleted emails pose question
Are federal transparency and record-keeping laws the statutes most often broken by officials of the U.S. government?
Are federal transparency and record-keeping laws the statutes most often broken by officials of the U.S. government? That's a reasonable question to ask following Friday's disclosure that emails to and from a top federal official may be "lost." Right on cue, when the going gets tough, the Obama administration proclaims it can't find the documents. The latest example comes from Marilyn Tavenner, the federal government's top Medicare and Medicaid official, who told a subordinate to delete a sensitive email to the Obama White House. The Oct. 5, 2013, email from Tavenner to a communications subordinate forwarded a previous email discussion Tavenner had with a group of officials at the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services about the disastrous launch of the Obamacare program's healthcare.gov website. President Obama appointed Tavenner in 2013 as director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which is part of HHS. The Tavenner emails were included in documents HHS turned over last week to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. To read more, click here. |
