Raising concerns about security practices with the Obamacare website HealthCare.gov, the U.S. House Science Committee has issued a subpoena to compel U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park to testify about his role in creating the site.
The chairman of the committee, Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said Park has refused to testify about his work managing the website and its security practices.
"The Obama Administration has failed to provide this committee with information about the security of the ObamaCare website," Smith said in a statement. "What is the White House trying to hide?"
[See also: Todd Park next to get grilled by GOP.]
The subpoena directs Park to appear Nov. 19 before an Oversight subcommittee, according to The Hill.
"The American people," Smith added, "deserve to know their personal information on HealthCare.gov is absolutely secure."
Or to know if it is not.
The security of personal information on HealthCare.gov was questioned after it was revealed last month by The Wall Street Journal that a hacker breached the website and uploaded malicious software apparently intended to use it to launch attacks against other websites.
Critics of HealthCare.gov said security vulnerabilities in the website could expose personal information of millions of people, although no records were compromised in the attack.
A Science Committee staff report said Park, who joined the HealthCare.gov team last year to help fix the problems that threatened to sink the project, misrepresented his role in the project.
[See also: Obama calls IT support for ailing site.]
While Park has said he did not know details of the website before joining the project, the staff report said his knowledge was far greater.
Now based in California's Silicon Valley, Park left his poistion last September, but he remains a technology advisor to the Obama Administration.
