Nothing to See Here. Move Along.

Yesterday, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) finally received an answer from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics regarding an ethics complaint that we, and nine other signatories, submitted to them more than a year ago.

The complaint, submitted on June 25, 2015, requested that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics investigate the senators and/or staff members that may have broken laws and committed fraud to enable senators, Senate staffers, and their families purchase health insurance on the District of Columbia’s Small Business Exchange.

CAGW wrote about our ethics complaint in the July 2015 WasteWatcher.  Here is a quick review:

• When Obamacare was being debated, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered amendments during two different committee mark-ups for their respective healthcare reform bills.  If the Democrat-controlled Congress was going to pass legislation that would restructure the entire healthcare insurance sector, Grassley and Coburn argued members of Congress and their staff had to participate in the new creation.  Both amendments were accepted in their respective committees’ bills.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) adopted the idea and merged the two Senate bills into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  After all, the Democrats were creating a healthcare Utopia and all were eager to be part of it.  That is until … Congress and their staff finally got around to reading the law and found out what was in it.  
• Just before the 2014 “open season,” they realized that anyone who had a household income of more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level (at the time it was $47,080 a year per individual or $97,000 for a family of four) would have to pay the full cost of their premiums, just like other Americans who was purchasing their own health insurance.  No longer would Congress and their staff be entitled to taxpayer-subsidized health insurance premiums they received via the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program.
• Panic ensued and leaders from the Senate and the House of Representatives, and both political parties, worked with the White House and the Office of Personnel Management to cook up a regulation that would allow Congress and their staff to get their subsidies back.
• And presto!  Write a regulation that declares Congress sort of looks like a small business.  That way, Congress and their staff can participate in the Washington, D.C. Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange and get their subsidies back!

Of course, under the law, to be a small business that can participate in a SHOP, an employer has to have less than 50 employees.  But, hey, no problem!  Just fake your application form!  Simply have someone attest there are less than 50 employees in the House of Representatives AND the Senate and your state your name is “Twenty Congress!”

So what was the committee’s response to our complaint to us?

“The Committee carefully evaluated the allegations in the complaint and, based on all the information before it, the Committee concluded that there has been no violation of Senate Rules.  Accordingly, the Committee intends to take no further action with respect to this matter.”

In other words, “move along, nothing to see here.”  And Congress wonders why their approval rating is at 14 percent.

Judicial Watch, which has done superb work on the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the Clinton Foundation, has filed a lawsuit on this issue.  Their lawyers are currently awaiting a decision from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. 

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.  Businesses with more than 100 employees can particpate in a SHOP starting in 2017.  Of course, there is the issue if Congress can declare themselves to be a business but that is an argument for another day.