The House’s top investigator said Thursday the main Obamacare website is still vulnerable to hackers and that the administration could not give him straight answers about a malicious attack of HealthCare.gov over the summer.
Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican who leads the House oversight committee, said a culture of coziness among parts of the Obama administration and Democratic lawmakers has made it difficult for his party to conduct oversight.
He cited intra-agency fighting at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and agency Administrator Marilyn Tavenner’s decision to delete government emails after the federal exchange systems disastrous rollout last fall.
“This is not an uncommon pattern,” Mr. Issa said, an allusion to missing emails at the IRS, which is steeped in a political targeting scandal.
He also noted that a hacker was able to load software onto a test portion of HealthCare.gov in July, and that the hack was not detected for weeks.
The federal Obamacare website helps people in 36 states shop for private health plans, often with the help of government subsidies. It hooks into a federal data hub that cross-checks personal information such as Social Security numbers, immigration status and household income.
The oversight committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said he wants HealthCare.gov to be secure.
Despite technical glitches, “nobody’s personal information has been compromised to date as the result of a malicious attack,” he noted.
He said Congress should be more concerned about breaches at large retailers like Target, where hackers may have access data from millions of customers.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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