Authorizing the President of the Senate to Certify the Report of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate Regarding the Refusal of Dr. Ralph De La Torre to Appear and Testify Before the Committee

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, for months the HELP Committee, on a bipartisan basis, has investigated the financial mismanagement of Steward Health Care and the impact on the delivery of care at its hospitals.

Steward's mismanagement has nationwide implications, affecting patient care in more than 30 hospitals across 8 States, including one in my home State, Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe, LA.

Because of Steward's management decisions resulting in limited resources at Glenwood, the State had to force the hospital to operate at one-third capacity. One patient reportedly died waiting for transfer to another hospital because Glenwood did not have the necessary resources to treat.

According to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a doctor at Glenwood told a Louisiana State inspector that the hospital was performing ``third-world medicine.''

Now, the problems at Glenwood are not unique. The HELP Committee heard testimony that because of understaffing at a Steward-owned St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, patients at the hospital waited in the emergency room for hours and sometimes days.

We have also heard testimony that Steward neglected to pay the vendors for essential hospital services. At St. Elizabeth's, there is a report that when newborn babies died, nurses had to put their bodies into cardboard shipping boxes because Steward did not pay for proper bereavement boxes.

A new mother who experienced a hemorrhage, or a bleed, during childbirth died because a basic piece of medical equipment required to save her life to stop the bleeding had been repossessed because Steward did not pay its bills.

Through the committee's investigation, it became evident that a thorough review of Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ralph de la Torre's management decisions was essential to understand Steward's financial problems and its failure to serve its patients.

To better understand and hopefully prevent this from happening again, we sought testimony from Dr. de la Torre, frankly, giving him the opportunity to present his side. It is possible that there is something that we didn't understand. And if he presented it, that understanding would have given us a different perspective.

Unfortunately, Dr. de la Torre refused to testify voluntarily. As a result, the committee issued a subpoena in July. And up until September 4, his lawyers indicated he intended to comply with the subpoena and to testify. However, 8 days before the scheduled hearing, Dr. de la Torre informed the committee he would not comply with the subpoena.

We responded to Dr. De la Torre explaining why his objections to the committee subpoena had no merit, directing him to comply.

Unfortunately, Dr. De la Torre ultimately defied the subpoena, refusing to appear before the committee.

Now, a witness cannot disregard and evade a duly authorized subpoena. That is why today the Senate will be voting on a resolution to hold Dr. de la Torre in criminal contempt for defying the subpoena.

I think it is unfortunate that we are here. But if someone shows contempt for the American people by defying a subpoena and refusing to provide answers, that is a contemptible thing. Congress has a responsibility to act.

I urge my colleagues to approve this resolution and to hold Dr. de la Torre in contempt.

And with that, I yield to my colleague.

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