House GOP focuses on administration official's instruction to delete email

House Republicans are pointing fingers at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner's direction to delete an email related to the health law's troubled launch.

The Hill: GOP Says Obama Health Official Instructed Staff To Delete Email
House Republicans on Friday accused a top Obama administration health official of telling staff to delete an email related to the healthcare law's rollout last fall. In a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, the Republicans point to an Oct. 5 email from Tavenner to staff about how to handle calls from people applying for ObamaCare. In the first line of the email, Tavenner writes "please delete this email but see if we can work on call script" (Al-Faruque, 8/15).

Fox News: Republicans Question HHS Official's Instruction To 'Delete' Internal Obamacare Email
A key official overseeing the ObamaCare launch last fall asked a subordinate to "delete" an email exchange on the matter, according to newly released records, fueling Republican concerns that the administration may be hiding internal discussions from Congress. "Time and again, the self-proclaimed 'most transparent administration' has been anything but," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement. "And now we know that when HealthCare.gov was crashing, those in charge were hitting the delete button behind the scenes." Upton and other GOP committee leaders on Friday released an email exchange from Oct. 5, 2013, shortly after HealthCare.gov launched to widespread problems. It showed Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, telling an employee in the public affairs office to "please delete this email" (Berger, 8/15).