Wyden and Smith Call on Watchdog to Review Slush Funds in Republican Budget Bill

Wyden and Smith Call on Watchdog to Review Slush Funds in Republican Budget Bill

Request from Finance Democrats to Government Accountability Office Comes Ahead of Trump Administration Disbursal of $50 Billion Dollar Rural Health Slush Fund

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth Ranking Member Tina Smith, D-Minn., called on a federal watchdog to investigate elements of the recently passed Republican budget bill, which includes billions in slush funds with limited oversight. This is another step by Senate Democrats to increase oversight of Trumpcare, which will have disastrous consequences for Americans' health care.

"The Republican reconciliation bill cuts federal funding for the U.S. health care system by over $1 trillion, and Republican health care cuts will terminate health care coverage for more than 15 million Americans," Wyden and Smith wrote. "In an attempt to cover up the harms of these cuts, which will disproportionately impact rural communities, the law established a temporary rural health slush fund. We write today to request GAO to provide an independent analysis of the implementation of this fund."

The letters, sent to Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, come as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implements the Republican budget law, which includes the largest health care cuts in history and will rip away billions of dollars from states and working families. The temporary rural health slush fund, created just days before the law was passed and used as a bribe for Republican votes, gives the Trump administration broad, unchecked authority to disburse a relatively small amount of funding to states with few guardrails to dictate how those resources are allocated. Meanwhile, the law includes hundreds of millions to implement its devastating policies, including for provisions that are already in effect, raising questions about how these taxpayer dollars will be used.

The rural fund letter asks GAO to examine how CMS will award these dollars, whether it will make sure funds are distributed in a transparent manner, what steps it will take to ensure states spend taxpayer dollars as they have pledged, and how CMS will define and claw back improperly used dollars from states, among other questions. The implementation funding letter asks GAO to examine CMS' detailed implementation plans and use of external contractors.

The request to investigate the temporary rural health care slush fund is here.

The request to investigate the implementation funding included in the law is here.

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