In full transparency, the following is a media release from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office. She was elected by voters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to serve the state in Washington DC in the US Senate. She is a Democrat. (stock photo). SOURCE publishes press release from elected leaders as a community service.
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WASHINGTON DC – In their first letter together as Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote to Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel, Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr., following up on requests for information by members of the committee.
The letter follows recent testimony before the subcommittee where senators raised their concern over lack of responsiveness from the Department of Defense (DoD) to congressional requests for information.
“We want to remind you of the several requests for information, reports, and responses to previous letters requesting information that Senators have yet to receive and that they raised with you and your colleagues during the hearing,” wrote the lawmakers.
Several members on the subcommittee – including Senators Budd (R-N.C.), Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kelly (D-Ariz.), Kaine (D-Va.), and Blumenthal (D-Conn.) – have reached out to DoD multiple times, seeking information about recent policy directives and overdue reports on military personnel that were required under previous National Defense Authorization Acts.
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At her first hearing as Chair of the Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Warren requested a report or briefing on how DoD will finally implement its authority to waive civilian medical debt for those receiving emergency treatment at military treatment facilities and to ensure patients are informed of their rights to get their debt waived. Between 2016 and 2021, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that DoD had billed over 60,000 civilian patients. Two thirds of the civilian patients DoD treats don’t have any insurance, yet DoD has only waived debt less than 60 times in five years. DoD has yet to implement the authority Senator Warren and Representative Castro passed into law three years ago.
“In all cases the requests issued last week were at least the second if not in some cases the third time we have called upon the Department to comply,” concluded the lawmakers. “As we both indicated to you all during the hearing, congressional requests for information are not only owed to us due to our constitutional oversight responsibilities, but they are also an important means by which our two branches of government can cooperate for the sake of better policy on behalf of taxpayers.”
The lawmakers asked for a response from DoD as soon as possible with a fulfillment of these requests.
Read the text of the letter here.
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Representative Jack Lewis 
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MassBay Community College