Johanns, Vilsack exchange letters on using extension for Obamacare education
July 01, 2013 | 07:03 PM
Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb.
After Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said last week that the Agriculture Department’s Cooperative Extension Service would help inform rural America about the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., wrote Vilsack that he was “incredulous” that USDA would use its money for that purpose, and demanded that Sebelius send him details of the nearly $800,000 that would be spent on the project.
But Vilsack wrote Johanns on Friday that the money would come from HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that the use of the extension service’s “outreach education potential” is a “typical example of how the broad reach and expertise of the Cooperative Extension System is leveraged by other federal agencies,” and that Johanns had approved a similar arrangement when he was Agriculture secretary.
Tom Vilsack
“In fact, a similar partnership was in place during your tenure as the secretary of Agriculture after Congress passed H.R. 1, the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act in June 2003,” Vilsack wrote.
“As you can see in the attached interagency agreement, USDA received $300,000 from CMS to assist with the outreach and education associated with the implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.”
“This interagency agreement was put in place to make use of the outreach education potential of the Cooperative Extension Service for the purposes of informing and educating consumers regarding their health choices within the Marketplace Exchanges of the Affordable Care Act,” Vilsack explained.
The Hagstrom Report noted last week that Sebelius announced the “special contract” in a speech to the National Rural Assembly, a group of rural activists that she encouraged to help get out the word on the opportunities available to rural Americans under Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act is colloquially known.
Johanns, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted he had opposed the Affordable Care Act, and said USDA was not authorized to spend money to promote it and that the extension service is supposed to promote food and agriculture.
But Vilsack wrote, “USDA extension activities are governed by the Smith-Lever Act [see 7 U.S.C. 341], which provides broad authority for extension agents to educate individuals on a vast range of topics both stated explicitly and those left unstated. For example, the Smith-Lever Act itself does not mention 4-H, but it is a critical national program within Smith-Lever-funded activities.”
Reacting to the letter from Vilsack, a Johanns spokesman said, “Here’s the bottom line. Rather than finding ways to responsibly reduce spending, this administration has cried wolf about not having the funds they need to continue essential services. When it comes to using taxpayer dollars to promote this flawed law, however, it seems they hit the lottery.”
The Johanns spokesman also noted that the Medicare Part D contract was approved before Johanns became secretary.
