Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) raised questions on Friday about whether or not the Obama administration intentionally deleted emails pertaining to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.
Upton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) recently wrote a letter to Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. In the letter, Upton and Murphy said they received a document that contradicted a CMS claim about lost emails.
“The day after a CMS official informed the committee about the potential loss of your emails, Health and Human Services provided the committee with additional documents related to our review of HealthCare.gov,” Upton said. “One of the emails in this production shows that you directed a subordinate to delete an email communication featuring a number of White House representatives.”
Tavenner allegedly forwarded an email discussion with White House officials to a subordinate with the message, “Please delete this email – but please see if we can work on a call script,” the legislators said.
“This contradicts the letter sent to the National Archives, which explained that your practice was to instruct subordinates to retain copies of emails,” Upton and Murphy said.
Upton and Murphy asked Tavenner to make herself available as soon as possible to explain why she directed her employee to delete the email, how CMS determines documents are permanently lost and what the reasons were for the ordered redactions.