Arne Duncan dodges questions, calls Education Department’s participation in Obamacare ‘minimal’

After a number of GOP lawmakers expressed concern about the Education Department’s involvement in the implementation of Obamacare, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that the department’s participation is “minimal.”

Duncan’s response, however, left many of the lawmaker’s questions unanswered.

In July, a group of Republican senators led by South Dakota Sen. John Thune sent a letter to Duncan requesting a slew of information on the Department of Education’s involvement with Obamacare.

“While we understand that the effects of the President’s health care law will be felt by parents, teachers, and their families, we are unfamiliar with how the Department of Education’s involvement in implementation will further the mission of educating our nation’s students,” they wrote, requesting specifics on cost and scope of the effort.

In a letter to Thune, Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, and the additional 18 signatories — including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee — Duncan offered a partial response to the senators’ concerns.

“Recognizing the intersection of wellness and student achievement, the Department is coordinating with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to share information with our stakeholders about the ACA. This is consistent with the Department’s longstanding practice of sharing helpful health information from the Federal government with its stakeholders,” Duncan wrote.

He noted that the department participates with HHS to assist in the first lady’s Let’s Move! campaign and it has disseminated information about illnesses and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Duncan added that he believes Obamacare will “will help to improve educational outcomes for our nation’s students.”

According to Duncan the department has been offering “basic materials developed by HHS for our stakeholders to use at their discretion” and that the department has not devoted a lot of resources to the task.

Via: Daily Caller

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Why is the Education Department peddling Obamacare?

What the Department of Education has to do with promoting and implementing President Obama’s signature healthcare law has been a mystery to several members of Congress.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., sent a July 16 letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan seeking answers, and has finally heard back.

Duncan contends that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education go hand in hand, saying “there is a connection between health and student performance.” Unhealthy children “are less likely to be successful academically than their healthier peers.”

To that end, Duncan said the Education Department would share “basic materials developed by [HHS] for our stakeholders to use at their discretion.”

He made clear that “HHS does not provide funds to the department for these efforts” and that Education “has devoted a very minimal amount of staff time and resources for these efforts, and thus expenses related to these efforts are a very minimal part of the salaries and expenses section of the budget.”

Duncan also said that “no single department employee works exclusively on this effort.”

He claimed that using federal funds would get information to the public in a “more efficient and cost-effective manner.”

It is still unclear why the Education Department must spend time and resources on Obamacare, which is why Thune spokeswoman AshLee Strong released the following statement:

While Senator Thune appreciates the Department of Education's response to his July 16th letter, it's disappointing that the agency failed to answer several important questions included in the letter. We will continue to seek answers to these outstanding questions, including:

• What statutory authority does the DoED have to carry out such promotion of the president’s health care law?

• What is DoED asking of individual schools?

• What are the specific costs of DoED's ObamaCare promotion?

• How many hours are DoED staffers using daily to promote ObamaCare?”

Via: Washington Examiner 
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