Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 30, 2005)

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for the time.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment offered by the ranking member ought to win the support of every single Member of this House.

Truth should be our expectation. In fact, that proposition is a legally binding directive of the Office of Management and Budget.

I tell my friend from Indiana, the amendment that he seems to feel is peculiar simply says to the administration, tell the truth. Is that peculiar?

Yet on one of the most important pieces of legislation that this Congress has considered in recent memory, the Medicare prescription drug bill, officials in the current administration purposely, deliberately, and cynically suppressed the real costs of that bill because it did not further their political agenda.

When that legislation was under consideration in November of 2003, the Congress was told that it would cost $395 billion between fiscal year 2004 and 2013. Yet just 3 months later, in February 2004, it was disclosed that the office of the Medicare actuary actually estimated that bill would cost $534 billion. In other words, it was not a 1 or 2 percent misrepresentation; it was a 95 percent misrepresentation. Then we now hear it may cost up to $1.2 trillion.

So on the prescription drug bill, I tell my friend from New York in particular, it was not a 1 or 2 percent mistake. It was a 300 percent mistake that was made on the prescription drug bill. That is a misrepresentation.

The truth is, Mr. Chairman, the Members of this Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, purposely had the cost hidden because the Republican leadership, in my opinion, knew that the bill would not pass if the truth were told.

That is what this amendment says: tell the truth.

The chief Medicare actuary, in fact, Richard Foster, told Congress in March 2004, that he had consistently estimated that the legislation would cost more than $400 billion, and he had prepared dozens of analyses that said it would be over $500 billion. But Mr. Foster told Congress that he had been ordered by Tom Scully, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in this administration, to withhold his cost estimates from Congress.

The failure to tell the truth is a lie. In fact, the Government Accountability Office has found that Mr. Scully violated Federal law when he threatened Mr. Foster's job. Now, luckily for him, he was not working for the Federal Government then so no sanctions can be taken.

The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) simply says, tell the truth, administration, when you talk to Congress. Mr. Chairman, this sorry episode ought to trouble, indeed infuriate, every Member of this House and, indeed, every American.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote for truthfulness. That is all this amendment says. Do not be so defensive on your mistake on the veterans' funding. The Democratic budget told you the truth on the funding necessary and you simply ignored it. Vote for the truth.

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