Two House subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee spent the morning looking into a recently-canceled part of the health care law. Health Subcommittee Chair Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) investigated the Community Living Assistance Service and Supports (CLASS) program, which was a component of the health care law to provide care to the elderly and disabled, until President Obama canceled the program earlier this month because of cost and long-term sustainability concerns.
Two representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services testified about the program's cancelation, and current and former members of Congress, some of whom are members of the Bicameral Repeal CLASS Working Group, also testified at the hearing.
The Working Group wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on October 20th asking for an explanation of the decision-making process that lead to the program's cancelation. The hearing sought answers to questions outlined in the letter.
"This type of fiscally unsound policy is what led to sky-high deficits and chronic over-spending in Washington," the Working Group wrote in a joint statement. "The American people deserve a full accounting of the CLASS decision-making process as well as an explanation for the many conflicting reports from Secretary Sebelius and other senior HHS officials about the program’s flaws,” said members of the Working Group.