Committee Chair Threatens Health Programs’ Funding

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opened his first hearing last month by announcing that funding for health programs whose formal authorization has lapsed should be cut.

Barton replaced Billy Tauzin (R-La.) as chair of the powerful committee when Tauzin resigned in February as chair, according to the March 11 Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.

Barton told Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, the hearing’s only witness, that a preliminary staff analysis identified 93 health programs that are receiving funding from appropriators without proper authorization, according to the policy report.

“I don’t think that’s a responsible practice. From my perspective, programs without authorization should not receive the same funding priority,” said Barton in the report.

Numerous programs have lapsed authorizations at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Indian Health Service, according to the report.

Thompson agreed that programs should be reauthorized in a systematic way. However, Barton’s suggestion met with disapproval from many of his congressional colleagues. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, “I don’t know what he’s thinking. We’d be slitting our throats by saying ‘don’t fund these programs that we have not gotten around to reauthorizing,’ ” according to the report. ▪