New Head of CMS Was Not Confirmed By the Senate

Over the recent 4th of July congressional recess, President Obama appointed Dr. Donald Berwick Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.  By appointing Dr. Berwick head of CMS during a recess, President Obama bypassed the Senate confirmation process that is normally required for certain senior government officials.  The White House claimed that it was important for Dr. Berwick to get to work as Administrator of CMS as quickly as possible.  It should be noted that the position Dr. Berwick urgently needed to fill has not been permanently filled since 2006, and President Obama did not nominate a CMS Administrator until April of 2010, nearly 15 months into his administration.

The Founding Fathers designed our government as a system of checks and balances.  Senate confirmation, under the advice and consent clause, is one of the strongest checks on executive power.  The workaround to this requirement is the recess confirmation clause, which states that “The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.”  This is meant to fill vacancies that arise during a long recess, not to bypass the confirmation process and avoid the accountability of a public debate.

President Obama claimed he had to resort to a recess appointment because “many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes.”  However, a hearing on Dr. Berwick’s nomination was not even scheduled in order for his views to be publicly discussed and debated.  In addition, I’m still waiting for Dr. Berwick to respond to all of my questions.  Despite this, I was ready to participate in a nomination hearing.  I personally requested that a hearing regarding Dr. Berwick’s nomination take place two weeks before the fourth of July recess, but my request was denied.  I, along with many other members of the Senate Finance Committee, again asked Chairman Baucus to schedule a hearing on the nomination of Dr. Berwick. 

Someone who will control some of the biggest government programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, as the leader of a major federal agency, should be accountable to the public by answering questions about his previous work and possible conflicts of interest.