{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=ab839934-5f86-4b66-acdc-ac35c3355bff", "Sen. Moran Demands Accountability from Administration on Obamacare Exchanges", "2013-10-24", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "KS", "Jerry Moran", "M000934", "www.moran.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, called on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to answer questions about the true cost of implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance Exchanges. Sen. Moran is committed to making certain the Obama Administration is held accountable for its use of taxpayer dollars, especially considering the systemic problems plaguing the ACA website, healthcare.gov.\r\n\"Over the past year, $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds have been used to implement the Exchanges.\u00a0This funding came exclusively from your Department\u2019s internal transfer of funds to the Exchanges \u2013 a decision that avoids Congressional approval,\" Sen. Moran said in a letter to Sec. Sebelius. \"Last week, your Department notified my appropriations subcommittee that an additional $450 million would be transferred to fund the Exchanges in Fiscal Year 2014.\u00a0 I am seriously concerned that taxpayers do not have a full understanding of the costs associated with implementing the Exchanges and the costs to fix the egregious technical problems healthcare.gov is currently plagued by.\"\r\nTo shed light on the true cost of implementing the ACA health insurance Exchanges, Sen. Moran asked Sen. Sebelius to respond no later than Nov. 13, 2013, to the following questions:\r\n \r\nHow much money to date has been spent on developing and implementing healthcare.gov?\u00a0 Please provide the sources of these funds, both discretionary and mandatory.\r\nDescribe the current technical issues affecting healthcare.gov and how the Department intends to correct these problems.\u00a0 Please include a timeline for resolving the issues.\r\nDescribe in detail (including key dates) the steps that your Department took to test the healthcare.gov website prior to roll-out on October 1, 2013.\u00a0 Please include information on technical issues that arose during the testing and how they were resolved.\r\nDescribe in detail what Department offices were responsible for the current version of healthcare.gov.\u00a0 Please also include what private companies were contracted with, how these contractors were selected, their qualifications, what project specifications for which they were responsible, and the cost of each contract.\u00a0\r\nIf the contractors responsible for healthcare.gov are determined to be at fault, do you intend to recover payments made to them?\u00a0 Please describe what recourses are available.\r\nIn detail, provide the cost breakout for fixing the technical issues associated with the Exchanges.\u00a0 Please include the sources of funding, the estimated timeline for resolving the issues, and the contracts responsible for paying the recruited technical experts brought in.\r\nOn October 18, 2013, your Department notified the Senate Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee that $450 million will be transferred from the Department\u2019s Nonrecurring Expenses Fund to the Exchanges.\u00a0 Will any of these funds be used to fix the current issues with the Exchanges?\u00a0 If so, how much?\u00a0 If not, what, for what specifically will the $450 million be used?\r\nIf the technical issues with the Exchanges cannot be fixed in time, how will the Administration deal with the ACA individual mandate that requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty? \u00a0\u00a0\r\nIf the issues with the Exchanges cannot be fixed in time, please explain in detail any contingency plans.\u00a0\r\nUnder the Continuing Appropriations Act, FY2014 (P.L. 113-46) passed on October 17, 2013, Congress requires you to certify that the Exchanges will verify household income before providing tax credits or any cost-sharing reductions.\u00a0 Please describe how the \u201cdata hub\u201d will be used to verify an individual\u2019s eligibility.\u00a0\r\nThe Administration had previously delayed income verification for 2014 due to issues with the data hub.\u00a0 Please explain how your Department will verify income for individuals signing up for health insurance through the Exchanges.\u00a0Will the verification process occur in real-time? On October 21, 2013, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stated that if individuals could not get access to insurance, they would not be penalized.\u00a0 Does this statement mean the Administration is considering delaying the ACA individual mandate?\r\n \r\nSen. Moran strongly opposes Obamacare and believes the best course of action is to dismantle the ACA and replace it with practical reforms that are workable and will actually reduce health care costs. In July, President Obama acknowledged that a significant component of Obamacare is broken and delayed enforcement of the employer mandate. The following week, Sen. Moran offered amendments in the Senate Appropriations Committee to delay both the employer mandate and individual mandate. Unfortunately, both amendments were defeated in party-line votes.\r\nAdditionally, this week Sen. Moran agreed to be an original cosponsor of the \u201cDelay Until Fully Functional Act,\u201d legislation Senator Marco Rubio is expected to introduce this upcoming Monday.\u00a0 This bill would delay Obamacare\u2019s individual mandate until it can be certified that the ACA website and Exchanges are functional.\u00a0 It is blatantly unfair for the federal government to punish individuals for not doing something the government is requiring them to do when the Administration\u2019s incompetence has made it impossible for them to comply.\u00a0 Sen. Moran believes the entire law should be repealed and replaced, but until that happens American individuals and families must be protected from the disasters created by Obamacare.\r\nSen. Moran\u2019s full letter to Sec. Sebelius is attached below.\r\n\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=ab839934-5f86-4b66-acdc-ac35c3355bff"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.659089932218194, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}