WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Both the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary and assistant Secretary received waivers for previous work in their respective states, however the scope of those waivers is being withheld, according to a watchdog group.
“The contents of the waiver are not available to the public and they have not been provided to us through our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT).
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and his assistant Secretary Rachel Levine signed certifications of ethics agreement compliance, which are available at the Office of Government Ethics website, however, the certifications do not provide details of the waivers granted for the states of California and Pennsylvania, respectively.
Becerra is the former attorney general of California while Levine is the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
“Certainly, if there were matters that Becerra participated in personally and substantially when he was at the state of California and then they allowed him to participate in those same matters while he's at HHS, those would be concerning because he was the attorney general for the state of California,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline.
PPT sued HHS last week in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging the documents have been wrongfully withheld.
“What surprised us about this FOIA request is that it was filed last year in early June and we're coming to the point where a couple of these waivers are going to expire in March so there is the potential that, for the entire time these waivers were in effect, the American public had no access to them even though the agency has the option to release them publicly if they want or they can release them in response to a FOIA request, which we submitted. But, these aren't the kind of waivers that they provide to the Office of Government Ethics, which would be posted on their website,” Chamberlain said.
PPT seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to compel the release of the waivers in compliance with the requirements of FOIA, according to the Feb. 24 complaint.
“The reason we filed the lawsuit is that HHS is not complying with their legal obligations, and we felt that the only way to get them to do so and to provide the documents would be through legal action,” Chamberlain added. “Right now, the trust from the American public in its government is at an all-time low and potential conflicts of interest and possible misconduct add to that.”
The lawsuit further names Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, assistant secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders who also received waivers.