Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, when is this administration finally going to start paying attention to the warning signs?

When career staff at OMB warned the administration that Solyndra wasn't ready for prime time, they moved forward anyway and lost hardworking taxpayers a half billion dollars.

When private consultants told the White House and HHS officials last spring that there were problems with healthcare.gov, they moved forward anyway.

When CMS sent a memo just 4 days before healthcare.gov went live and warned about "inherent security risks''--their terminology--the administration moved forward anyway. So their failed policy of forward is costing us money and is getting people into trouble. This is what we are hearing from an Experian report. America's personal information is at high risk on healthcare.gov. There is a great opportunity for a data breach.

Mr. Speaker, this is something we can stop. The bill today does that. It is simple. It addresses the problem. What it does very simply--and I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania for the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act--it accomplishes what this administration has failed to make a standard practice. It will force HHS to inform anyone if their information has been breached, and they have to do this within 2 business days. They can't hide it. They can't spin it. They have got to tell you if your information has been breached.

We do this because if the administration is going to require us--and, yes, to my colleagues, it is a requirement--to use healthcare.gov, at least they can notify you when your information has been breached.

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