Eight months after President Obama announced that health care companies agreed to squeeze $1 trillion worth of efficiencies out of the medical system over the next decade, lawmakers continue to wonder what the White House may have promised in return.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee found itself in rare bipartisan agreement on Wednesday that the White House should turn over documentation of meetings between administration officials and industry executives, as well as details of any deals that resulted.

Obama announced May 11 that lobbyists for hospitals, drug and medical device makers, doctors, health insurers, and labor unions had agreed to reduce the growth of health care spending by 1.5 percent per year. The industry groups followed up with a 28-page proposal they said would save as much as $2 trillion over 10 years. And some industries — most notably, hospitals and drug companies — pledged to contribute tens of billions of dollars to the cost of a health care overhaul.

It has never been clear whether Obama and other officials pledged to do anything in return, other than supporting health care legislation that would put an additional 30 million customers under insurance coverage. But throughout the yearlong health care debate, the administration has lobbied hard to defeat proposals to extract even more savings from some of the industries, especially drug companies.

Republicans accuse the administration of cutting deals behind closed doors and question whether the nonbinding industry concessions would really deliver the advertised savings. On Sept. 30, Rep. Michael C. Burgess, R-Texas, asked the White House for documents related to its negotiations with industry groups. He says he received no reply.

The dispute recalls the fuss congressional Democrats made during President George W. Bush’s first term when the White House would not disclose which interest groups participated in talks that produced that administration’s energy policy.

In December, Burgess told House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., that he planned to introduce a resolution of inquiry in an effort to force the information out of the White House. Waxman got involved, urging the White House to share information with Burgess. But when that did not work, Burgess introduced his resolution (H Res 983).

On Jan. 26, a day before Waxman’s committee was to mark up Burgess’ resolution, the White House counsel gave Burgess about 80 pages of documents — all of it publicly available material such as printouts of White House Web pages, he said, that shed little light on the industry negotiations. “Two trillion dollars and we didn’t write down a single word?” Burgess asked. “It was done on just a handshake? I want what hasn’t been released, and I want the real details.”

The committee voted Wednesday to send Burgess’ resolution to the House floor without recommendation, effectively killing it. But Waxman promised to continue to help Burgess get at least some of what he wants.


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