Before White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park even uttered a word about HealthCare.gov this morning in front of the House panel that had subpoenaed him to testify, the chairman and the ranking member were sparring over the failed launch of the government’s insurance website.
Rep. Darrell E. Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, opened the hearing with a laundry list of what went wrong with the site:
- The project cost $600 million over three and 1/2 years, he said, more than Kayak.com spent on its site and more than eBay spent over several years.
- Efforts were taken to cut corners to meet political deadlines at the end.
- Oversight was ineffective
[See also: What happened to Healthcare.gov?]
"They we'ren’t ready; they weren’t close to ready," said Issa. The administration stuck to its Oct. 1 deadline anyway, he said, “effectively to explode on the launch pad."
Issa trumped those remarks by raising concerns over the security of the site. "There was no integrated security testing before the launch, he asserted, and suggested that hackers might already have stolen personal data, such as social security numbers.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland and the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, accused Issa of politicizing the issue by repeatedly making unfounded allegations.
"Nobody in this room believes Republicans want to fix this site," Cummings said in his opening remarks.
[See also: Todd Park next to get grilled by GOP.]
Most troubling of all is allegations, Cummings said, were Issa’s accusations that Park had engaged in a pattern of interference and false statements. "In my opinion, your comments denigrated his reputation," Cummings said. "You owe Mr. Park an apology, not a subpoena," he said.
Park was scheduled to respond to questions from the panel later in the hearing that included testimony from several other officials.
Park, submitted a written statement to the committee. It read in part:
“Unfortunately, the experience on HealthCare.gov has been highly frustrating for many Americans. These problems are unacceptable. We know there is real interest from the American public in having easy access to the new, affordable choices in the Health Insurance Marketplace,”
“I believe that as public servants we have a shared goal to deliver to Americans the service they deserve and expect. And since the beginning of October, I have shifted into working fulltime on the team that is working around the clock to fix HealthCare.gov and bring it to the place it should be."
He said the team is making progress, and the website is is getting berrer each week. The team is making progress. The website is getting better each week. Individuals are signing up successfully, but, he added, "We have much work still to do."
