THE ROLE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER IN THE HEALTHCARE.GOV WEBSITE DEBACLE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 19, 2014 Serial No. 113–96 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology ( THE ROLE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER IN THE HEALTHCARE.GOV WEBSITE DEBACLE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 19, 2014 Serial No. 113–96 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 92–329PDF WASHINGTON : 2015 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY HON. LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas, Chair DANA ROHRABACHER, California EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas RALPH M. HALL, Texas ZOE LOFGREN, California F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois Wisconsin DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas ERIC SWALWELL, California PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia DAN MAFFEI, New York STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi ALAN GRAYSON, Florida MO BROOKS, Alabama JOSEPH KENNEDY III, Massachusetts RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois SCOTT PETERS, California LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana DEREK KILMER, Washington STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California BILL POSEY, Florida ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming MARC VEASEY, Texas DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona JULIA BROWNLEY, California THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ROBIN KELLY, Illinois KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota KATHERINE CLARK, Massachusetts JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma RANDY WEBER, Texas CHRIS COLLINS, New York BILL JOHNSON, Ohio SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT HON. PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia, Chair F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., DAN MAFFEI, New York Wisconsin ERIC SWALWELL, California BILL POSEY, Florida SCOTT PETERS, California KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas BILL JOHNSON, Ohio LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas (II) C O N T E N T S November 19, 2014 Page Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2 Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3 Opening Statements Statement by Representative Paul C. Broun, Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .................................................................................................... 8 Written Statement ............................................................................................ 9 Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Member, Com- mittee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .... 10 Written Statement ............................................................................................ 12 Statement by Representative Lamar S. Smith, Chairman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ..................... 13 Written Statement ............................................................................................ 14 Witnesses: Mr. Todd Park, former Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 15 Submitted Biography ....................................................................................... 18 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 25 Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions Mr. Todd Park, former Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) .......................................................... 50 Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record Prepared statement by Representative Eric Swalwell, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .................................... 80 Supporting documents submitted by Representative Paul C. Broun, Chair- man, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Science, Space, and Tech- nology, U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................... 82 Hearing documents submitted by the Majority staff, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .................................... 155 Letter submitted by Representative Scott Peters, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representa- tives ....................................................................................................................... 193 Minority staff report submitted by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .................................................................................... 195 Majority staff report submitted by Representative Paul C. Broun, Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................................ 413 (III) THE ROLE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER IN THE HEALTHCARE.GOV WEBSITE DEBACLE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a.m., in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Paul Broun [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. (1) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Chairman BROUN. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Over- sight will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recesses of the Committee at any time. Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing. In front of you are packets containing the written testimony, biography, and truth- in-testimony disclosure for today’s witness. I now recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. I want to thank my colleagues for being here today, and I want to especially thank our witness for his presence. We have been waiting a very long time to be able to question you, sir. I am sorry that we had to come to the point of issuing you a subpoena to get that to happen, but I am glad that you are here today, sir. In fact, the Committee has invited you several times before on five different occasions. We wrote directly to you, Mr. Park, as well as to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. None of those invitations elicited the ‘‘yes’’ response that we got as a result of issuing you a subpoena. In the course of our correspondence, several claims were made by OSTP as to why you were not the individual to answer the Com- mittee’s questions, such as: that you and OSTP personnel have not been substantially involved in developing or implementing the Fed- erally Facilitated Marketplace’s security measures; that you did not develop or approve the security measures in place to protect the website; that you do not manage those responsible for keeping the site safe; and that you are not a cybersecurity expert, which is an interesting description of you to say the least. You are the co- founder of Athenahealth, which you co-developed into one of the most innovative health IT companies in the industry and become very wealthy, in fact, doing that. As a government employee, you helped launch the President’s Smarter IT Delivery Agenda, which created the new U.S. Digital Service, and you created the beta version of HealthCare.gov. How do these activities not require cybersecurity expertise? Further, on November 13, 2013, in testimony, sworn testimony, before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, you said that you did not, to quote you, ‘‘actually have a really detailed knowledge base’’ of the website before it was launched, and that you were, again quoting you, ‘‘not deeply familiar with the develop- ment and testing regimen that happened prior to October 1.’’ However, the Committee has in its possession documents that appear to contradict much of what you have said in your prior Con- gressional appearance, again under oath, as well as what OSTP has explained to this Committee. But these documents were not easy to come by, despite request- ing them in a letter last December, and despite preparing to ask about them in a briefing OSTP arranged on your behalf in Sep- tember—a briefing that was canceled the evening before it was scheduled to take place when your colleagues were informed it would be transcribed. Mr. Park, I find your and the White House’s lack of transparency intolerable and an obstruction to this Committee’s efforts to con- duct oversight. It took a subpoena to get you here, sir. It took an- other subpoena to compel your documents from the White House, but even with that, we have yet to receive all of your documents 9 in compliance with our subpoena issued on September 19, exactly 2 months ago. As a gesture of good faith,