Transcript

7.1.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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July first, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
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To day's front page headlines from the Washington Post are
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Doge holds keys to sensitive data that could benefit Musk competitors.
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See danger of exposing trade secrets, contract details and more. Next,
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Senates slugs through tax bill attempt to win over go
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P holdouts. Passage not guaranteed given thin majority. Our next
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headline inside the largest U S health care fraud bust
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ten point six billion dollar global scam swamped Medicare with
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a flood of phony claims. The next headline retirements muddle
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effort to keep GOP majority. Next fight over statue Royalstown
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that tried to heal divides what began as effort to
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promote racial unity energize Confederate supporters in North Carolina instead,
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And the final headline from today's front page, Republicans add
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three trillion dollars in debt, but don't count it. Now,
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let's turn to our first item entitled Doge holds keys
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to sensitive data that could benefit Musk competitors see danger
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of exposing trade secrets, contract details and more. But Desmond Butler,
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Jonathan O'Connell, Hannah Adamson, and Aaron Gregg. For months, Elon
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Musk's US DOGE service plumbed the federal government's information systems,
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scouring arcane internal records that the billionaires said were guiding
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his hunt for waste. Now the Musk has stepped away
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from his government rule, some of that data could be
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valuable in another way, giving the world's richest man a
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competitive advantage over his rivals in the private sector. A
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Washington Post examination found that in at least seven major
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departments or agencies, DOES secured the power to review records
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that contained competitors trade secrets, non public details about government contracts,
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and sensitive regulatory actions or other information. The Post found
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no evidence that doche has viewed or misused government information
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to benefit Musk's business empire, which spans industries including artificial intelligence,
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space exploration, and medical devices. But some competitors are alarmed
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about the possible exposure of their proprietary information or other
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private data. So much of The data that we submit
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to the government is competitively sensitive, said one executive from
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a firm that competes with Musk's aerospace company SpaceX do
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that we assume it's protected, and now it feels that
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we are vulnerable. The company has held internal high level
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meetings to discuss doge's access to federal contracting data, but
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has not made those concerns public for fear that its
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government contracts could be targeted for cancelation, said the executive, who,
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like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition
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of anonymity for fear of retribution. The post examination sheds
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light on the scale of Musk's overlapping interests during his
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more than four months leading DOGE. It also underscores musk
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unprecedented view into the inner workings of a federal bureaucracy
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that has both aided his rise as a businessman and
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served as a check on his ambition. When President Donald
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Trump issued an executive order on his first day in
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office to establish DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency,
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he called for federal officials to provide the new unit
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with access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and
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it systems. He also ordered DOGE to adhere to rigorous
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data protection standards. Nearly one hundred thirty days later, after
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a contentious effort to slash government spending, most said he
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was stepping away from his government position to refocus on
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his businesses. After his departure, Musk feuded with Trump this
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month over the cost of a proposed legislative package backed
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by the President, a rupture that threatened to curtail Musk's
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influence within the federal government. His level of potential future
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involvement remains unclear. Some DOGE staffers has since left, while
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others have taken permanent jobs at federal agencies. White House officials, meanwhile,
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have insisted doge's work will continue regardless. The information the
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unit was able to view will remain valuable, experts said,
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because it has the potential to help Musk's firms exs,
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span into new industries with additional government contracts, or identify
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employees who reported unsafe working conditions to federal investigators. The
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Post reviewed court documents and interviewed dozens of current and
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former US government officials to determine which records doeje ades
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were able to examine. While Musk led the unit. Reporters
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also spoke with experts and business competitors about how that information,
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if improperly shared with Musk's companies, could give them a
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competitive advantage. DOEJE ads, for example, were given near blanket
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access to records at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Court
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record show the agency holds proprietary information about algorithms used
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by payment apps, similar to the ones that Musk has
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said he wants to incorporate into a social media platform.
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X NASA employees told the Post that DOEJE aides were
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able to review internal assessments of thousands of contracts in
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luoting those awarded to rivals of Musk's SpaceX rocket company,
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which has already won billions of dollars of government work
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and is competing for more. Among SpaceX's competitors is Blue Origin,
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a company owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns a
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Washington Post. Blue Origin and its executives did not respond
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to requests for comment, and Labor Department employees set in
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court filings that doge aids were allowed to examine any
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record at the agency, which holds files detailing dozens of
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sensitive workplace investigations into Tesla and other musk companies, as
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well as their competitors. Musk and his companies, including SpaceX, Xai,
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and Tesla, did not respond to requests for comment. We're
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going to follow all the appropriate ethics and laws attributed
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to handling federal government and citizens data, White House spokesman
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Harrison Field said in response to The Post's findings. That
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is a priority of this administration, and that's exactly what
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we're going to do. Musk has said that analyzing government
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data sets was an important part of doges's core mission
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to find and root out wasteful spending. In an interview
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with Fox News in March, he said his team was
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reconciling all of the government databases to eliminate the waste
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in fraud. He added, it's frankly painful homework, but it
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has to be done and will greatly improve the efficiency
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of the government systems. To carry out Dog's work, Musk
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relied in part on people with ties to his business empire.
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At least twenty Doge aides previously worked at his companies.
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The Post fan Musk himself retained his roles at Tesla,
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SpaceX and other firms, and led Doge as a quote
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special government employee, a designation that carries less restrictive ethical
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rules than regular government jobs, but still prohibits misusing the
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position for financial gain. In February, as polls showed voters
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souring on Musk, Trump told reporters We're not going to
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let him do anything where there's a conflict of interest.
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A raft of ongoing lawsuits by employee unions, watchdog groups,
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and others have challenged doge's authority, including its right to
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view government records. Lawyers for the Trump administration have said
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in court filings that DOEGE staffers received training for handling
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such data and had agreed to do so legally and ethically.
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Federal regulations prohibit current government employees, including DOZE aides, from
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disclosing non public information to advance a person's private interests,
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but even Trump's staunchest allies have raised concerns about giving
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DOGE broad access. I think we have to have a
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letter of certification that not one data set or piece
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of data of the United States government or citizens of
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this country are held by anybody, or any copies held
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except for the Trump administration and the US government. Stephen K. Bannon,
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a top White House adviser during Trump's first administration said
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at a conference in April, Bannon, who has publicly clashed
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with Musk, called for investigations in the Musk's immigration status
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this month after the billionaires split with Trump in April,
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when the interviewer said Bannon seemed not to trust Musk
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with government data, Bannon replied, trust but verify. Expanding into
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new industries, Musk has long said he intends to turn X,
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his social media platform, into an everything app that provides
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banking and payment capabilities. He has championed the idea of
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X being an American version of the Chinese app we Chat,
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which has more than one point three billion active users.
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I think the fundamental thing that's missing that would be
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in incredibly useful is a single application that encompasses everything,
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Musk told ASK employees in twenty twenty three, a year
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after taking over the company. According to a transcript obtained
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by The Verge, I actually mean someone's entire financial life.
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If it involves money, it'll be on our platform, money
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or securities or whatever. It's not just you know, send
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twenty bucks to my friend. I'm talking about like you
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won't need a bank account. In January, the week after
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Trump was inaugurated, x announced that it would partner with
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Visa to begin offering peer to peer payments to users,
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marking the company's foray into the financial services industry. Weeks later,
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DOGE mounted a hostile takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
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a watchdog agency that regulates the finance sector and in
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some cases collects its trade secrets. On February seven, must
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telegraph the fate of the agency in a post on
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x vfbp rip, he wrote, adding a tombstone emoji. Less
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than an hour later, his aides began demanding access to
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the agency's information systems. At five thirty six PM, an
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agency communications official received the first in a series of
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calls from two DOGE aids at the White House. According
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to interviews with that person, who provided detailed notes from
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the call, the DOGE aides asked for passwords and full
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administrative control of the CFBP website and social media accounts.
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The person said that night, Trump's new pick to temporarily
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run the CFBP Russell vote issued in order giving DOGE
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aids the authority to view all unclassified CFBP data. According
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to internal agency emails obtained by the post established by Congress.
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In response, to the two thousand eight financial crisis. The
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CFBP is supposed to enforce federal consumer protection laws. The
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bureau collects non public information from the companies it regulates
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and from consumers who file complaints. It is only one
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of several agencies housing data that could be used to
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vet potential customers for financial services. Experts and employees said
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DOT has had access to such data about millions of
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American consumers at the Treasury Department, Social Security Administration, and
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Education Department, the Post has previously reported. A Treasury spokeswoman
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said that all its employees undergo training and ethics guidance,
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adding that non public information may not be disseminated and
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that doing so for personal use could be punished under
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the law. A Social Security official said in a statement
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that the agency is solely focused on improving technology and
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delivering on President Trump's executive order to eliminate information silos
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and streamlined data collection across all agencies to increase government
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efficiency and save hard earned taxpayer dollars. The Education Department
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and c FBP did not respond to requests for comment.
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The Trump administration has acknowledged in court that two DOGE
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aids had credentials that allowed them to review the c
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fbp's most sensitive records or grant that power to others.
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Administration lawyers noted, however, the DOGE aids assigned to the
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agency had certified in written agreements that they would abide
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by all federal security, confidentiality, and ethics laws. No single
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person had ever been granted such broad access to the
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bureau's data systems, according to a declaration from Ery Meyer,
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the c fbp's former chief technologists later filed in court
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as part of a lawsuit brought by labor unions and
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efficacy groups seeking to limit Doge's ability to review government records.
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In interviews, Meyer and other staff that near complete access
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god Teer must could never have gotten god Teer access
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to this kind of information as a private citizen. Meyer
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told The Post this kind of data access was unprecedented
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in government because there were protections in place until now
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to prevent it. Some of the agency's information would be
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valuable to private companies looking to expand their footprint within
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the financial services industry. Current and former CFBP employees and
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experts said in recent years, the CFBP requested and received
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data from major tech firms that have built payment apps
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such as zell, cash App, and PayPal. According to interviews
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with current and former CFBP staff, that information includes business strategies,
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internal assessments of products, development, proprietary algorithms, AI models, and
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the company's analyzes of their competitors. In many cases, the
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business resisted providing data to the CFBP, a arguing that
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it would be devastating if leaked. The CFBP assured the
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companies that the data would be protected, according to two
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officials familiar with the talks. The CFBP employees who spoke
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with a Post said that they had not seen any
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indication that Doese viewed commercially valuable data or that such
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information was shared with Musk or any of his companies,
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but the sensitive nature of the information is a source
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of anxiety for payment processors competing with x now, a
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subsidiary of Musk's XAI. A lobbyist who represents electronic payment
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companies described a variety of data held by the CFBP
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that could harm his clients if leaked to a competitor,
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including pricing, structure costs, and the proprietary information about algorithms.
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The lobbyist said his clients are unsettled by their uncertainty
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about how DOGE has had government data and have shared
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their concerns with members of Congress during routine meetings on
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other topics. It should be clear that they cannot use
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that information for competitive purposes, the lobbyist said government contracts.
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Since the twenty tens, NASA has increasingly turned to the
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private sector to facilitate space travel, recently pursuing contracts with
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fourteen American companies, including SpaceX, to help send people back
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to the Moon. SpaceX has been dominant, winning more than
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fifteen billion dollars from the agency for its work on
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space programs, including those aiming to explore Mars. Musk's DOGE
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team at NASA meanwhile gained insight into all the agency's
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contracts and grant data. According to interviews with more than
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a dozen employees and records obtained by the Post, the
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information compiled for doge's review goes far beyond publicly accessible
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information about the government contracts. It includes detailed descriptions of
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the services provided to NASA, as well as employees explanations
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for why each contract should be kept, cut or downsized,
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offering an intimate picture of which services NASA values and
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why NASA is one of at least two agencies that
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have ongoing contracts with Musk's companies where DOGE had the
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ability to examine non public contracting data, the Post found.
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Experts said such information, if obtained by a Musk company,
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could provide it with a significant edge in winning future
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government work. DOGE is also authorized to examine non public
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data about firms bidding for government work at the General
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Services Administration. According to two employees, DOGE was given access
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to two databases there holding records related to the award
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of contracts, permitting the team to see who submitted bids,
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for how much, and what kinds of negotiations took place.
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The agency, which administers contracts for technology and other services
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provided to government agencies, has multiple contracts with a subsidiary
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of Tesla for solar power generation. Record show. NASA declined
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to comment and the g SA did not respond to
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requests for comment. At NASA, Actic administrator Janet Petro sent
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an e mail to employees on Valentine's Day announcing that
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DOEGE would be reviewing our contracts to find efficiencies. By
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early March, three DOGE aids had been given user accounts
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within NASA's internal systems. Record show Scott Colter, and two
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former employees of TESLA, Alexander Simon Poor and Riley Sennott.
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The Doze trio obtained twenty four seven access to NASA's
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administrated offices and the ability to review internal employee data,
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including employment and training history record show. Sennat declined to comment.
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Coulter and Simonport did not respond to requests for comment.
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About a week later, top administrators began sending emails to
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NASA staffers who work with contracts or grants outlining a
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new data request. According to messages obtained by the Post,
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staff were told to help with a comprehensive contracts and
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grants review required by Trump's executive order embedded DOE jades
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at federal agencies. One email directed employees to provide a
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long list of supplemental information for each of NASA's roughly
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thirteen thousand contracts and grants. The information to be compiled
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included the employee's recommendation of whether to keep, eliminate, or
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shrink the contract or grant, their rationale for the decision, and,
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in the case of the cancelation, its impact on the
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agency's mission. The email exhorted employees to be specific please
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ensure that contract descriptions and justifications contain sufficient detail. The
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email said, enough detail for a layman to understand critical
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work being performed under the contract. Staff entered the requested
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information into a spreadsheet, according to records obtained by the Post,
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and sent it to the Director's office, where DOGE was installed.
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For any competitor to have that level of access within
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government agencies is a huge problem, the executive from the
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SpaceX competitor said in response to the Post's findings. Nobody
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has that level of detail. Most active NASA contracts are
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listed publicly on a federal website, but the details laid
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out in those documents, including money allocated, vendor name, and
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a brief description of work performed, fall far short of
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the information in the spreadsheet, said Christopher Milanchik, a former
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senior contracting officer for the Defense Department who now helps
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companies compete for and carry out federal contracts. Useful info
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about agency needs is extremely valuable the coin of the
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realm for proposal, sales and business development professionals trying to
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win government contracts. Milarchik said, so getting your hands on
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a non public spreadsheet that details every aspect of the
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agency's contracts creates a tremendous advantage. Larchik said that value
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will endure for many years, although it will diminish over
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time as the agency's needs evolve. The information could be
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useful to Musk's companies in multiple ways, said Jessica Tlipmann,
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Associate Dean for Government Procurement Law Studies at George Washington
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University Law School. Learning which contracts the government plans to
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terminate or shrink before that is announced publicly could tip
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off companies about what services the government might need in future,
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giving them extra time to prepare a more competitive bid,
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to Lipmann said, and the spreadsheet, with its thousands of justifications,
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paints a detailed portrait of the services NASA officials see
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as priorities and why any company with that level of
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insight could tailor a more convincing bid. She said. This
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information gives an edge, it helps predict upcoming procurements, it
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details what the agency might need, and gives insight into
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its inner workings. To Lipmann set, basically, you're looking at
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the agency's internal thought processes, and not only that, but
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who's doing the thinking. Democratic lawmakers have sent several letters
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to Petro asking what access Doge has to proprietary or
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confidential data at our agency? Citing potential conflicts of interest
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for Musk, NASA officials decline to answer those questions directly,
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writing in a response that Doge has identified an individual
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who will be employed by NASA who will have all
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necessary actions as to NASA owned or managed resources as
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required for his duties regulatory actions. On February fourth, two
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weeks after Trump's inauguration, leaders at the Labor Department informed
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headquarters employees that Doege would be visiting the agency the
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next afternoon. On February fifth, the day of Dog's expected arrival, employees, unions,
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and afficacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging Doge's authority to
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examine sensitive Department of Labor records. Agency leaders had told
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employees that when mister Musk and his team visit, they
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are to do whatever they ask, not to push back,
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not to ask questions, a union representative said in an
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affidavit filed as part of the lawsuit. Employees were told
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to provide access to any DL system they requested access to,
23:52
and not to worry about any security protocols. Just do it.
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The department tasked with protecting the rights of employees, job applicants,
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and retirees. Has more than fifty data systems that contain
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private information about individuals. Dose attorneys have argued in court
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that accessing Labor Department data is required to root out
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waste and abuse, but some data could provide Musk with
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a window into sensitive government investigations of his companies, including
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the names of any employees who may have provided information
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to aid those investigations, said Jordan Baruch, who was a
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Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health
24:33
Administration from two thousand nine to twenty seventeen during the
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Obama administration. OHSHA enforcement data remains protected by law, and
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the agency continues its inspections to safeguard workers health and safety,
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regardless of who the employer may be, Labor Department spokesperson
24:52
Courtney Perella said in a statement to the Post. OHSHA
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enforces workplace safety and health standards, collects information about workplace injuries,
25:01
and conducts investigations. It has investigated and penalized SpaceX and
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Tesla multiple times for safety violations, including an episode last
25:12
year in which a contract worker at Tesla was electrocuted
25:16
and killed while inspecting solar panels at the company's Texas factory.
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Tesla is appealing to penalties related to last year's electrocution.
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OSHA has issued more than forty penalties to Tesla and
25:29
its subsidiary since twenty ten, according to the corporate watchdog
25:33
and research group Good Jobs First, and a half dozen
25:36
penalties to SpaceX since twenty fourteen. In twenty twenty, a
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Tesla executive said its injury rate was below the industry average.
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The identities of workers who may have shared information about
25:49
allegedly unsafe conditions are in OSHA's data, putting them at
25:54
risk of being outed. All that information about workers who
25:58
file complaints details of the investigations are in OSHA's files.
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Barob said workers who contact OSHA can, and often do,
26:08
request that their names be kept confidential from the company.
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Barov said the agency often publicly releases details about injuries
26:16
it investigates, but does not disclose who provided the information,
26:20
such as in twenty twenty, when a Tesla employee suffered
26:23
a broken lower back installing solar panels. You've got people
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who are afraid of filing complaints for fear of the
26:30
employer finding out. OSHA is required by law to keep
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that confidential if the employee requests that it be confidential.
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Barov said. Those investigations can also involve collecting company documents
26:44
or taking photographs of job sites, information that sometimes contains
26:48
business secrets or proprietary information that companies do not otherwise
26:53
share with outsiders. OSHA regularly collects proprietary material in a database,
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Barob said, and is required by law to keep it private. Otherwise,
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he said, businesses wouldn't feel comfortable complying with the agency's
27:08
inquiries for fear that the information they provide could be
27:12
used by competitors. Among the companies OSHA has investigated are
27:17
rivals of mosques in the automobile and aerospace industries. OSHA's
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database is one of seven Labor Department systems that the
27:25
employee unions raised as particular concerns in their February lawsuit.
27:30
Attorneys for DOESE and the government have pointed out in
27:33
court filings that aids detailed to the Labor Department are
27:37
required to act in accordance with applicable laws and regulations
27:41
for data handling. They also said DOSE employees at the
27:45
agency were required to fill out paperwork before accessing data
27:49
systems and to acknowledge legal restrictions on the use of
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sensitive information. As of early April, attorneys for DOZE and
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the government did not list OSHA's database as one Dozese
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had access, and it's unclear whether DOZE has done so
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since then. The judge in the case rejected the union's
28:08
requests for a temporary restraining order allowing DOGE to continue
28:12
to review agency data, but lawyers for the unions have
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argued the risk of the data being breached and shared
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with Musk or someone else in the private sector is
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too great. No other business owner on the planet has
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access to this kind of information on his competitors, they wrote,
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and for good reason. Daniel Gilbert and Tricia Sodani contributed
28:36
to this report. Our next item is entitled Senate slogs
28:41
through tax bill attempt to win over GOP holdouts. Passage
28:46
not guaranteed given thin majority by Jacob Bogage, Theodoric Meyer
28:52
and Marianna Sotomayor, Senate Republicans inch toward passing their massive
28:57
tax and immigration bill Monday, working through the evening to
29:01
win over the final holdouts as they seek to deliver
29:04
the first major legislative victory of President Donald Trump's second term.
29:09
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would extend tax cuts
29:13
passed in twenty seventeen, enact campaign promises such as no
29:17
tax on tips, spend hundreds of billions of dollars on
29:21
immigration enforcement and defense, and slash spending on social benefit programs.
29:27
The three point three trillion dollar legislation survived a brief
29:31
GOP revolt over the weekend to allow the Chamber to
29:35
move forward with debate on the measure, but its passage
29:38
remains far from certain. Trump has pressed Congress to pass
29:42
the bill by July fourth, and White House Press Secretary
29:46
Carolyn Levitt implored Republicans on Monday to stay tough and
29:50
unified as a rush to meet the deadline. The White
29:54
House and the President are adamant that this bill is
29:57
passed and that this bill makes its way to his death,
30:00
Levitt told reporters. But with a fifty three to forty
30:04
seven majority Senate, Republicans can lose only three votes, and
30:09
two Republicans have already indicated that they will oppose it.
30:13
Senator Tom Tillis, Republican from North Carolina, took to the
30:17
Senate floor twice Sunday night to excoriate his party's legislation,
30:22
saying it would break Trump's promise not to cut Medicaid
30:25
benefits and would put more than six hundred thousand people
30:29
in his stay at risk of losing their health insurance.
30:33
Tillis announced Sunday after Trump threatened him with a primary
30:37
challenge for voting against starting debate on the bill, that
30:40
he would not seek reelection next year. Senator Ran Paul,
30:45
Republican from Kentucky, also voted Saturday against taking up the bill,
30:50
and he is expected to vote against passage because it
30:53
would raise a debt limit by five trillion dollars, and
30:57
Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine and Lisa Murkowski, Republican
31:02
from Alaska have expressed concerns over the bill's Medicaid funding
31:06
cuts and have not said how they will vote. Vice
31:09
President j. D. Vance nearly had to cast the tie
31:12
breaking vote Saturday night to start debate on the bill
31:16
before Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, switched his vote,
31:21
and Republicans will need him to trek to the Capitol
31:24
if three Republicans vote no. If the bill makes it
31:28
through the Senate, the House will need to pass it
31:30
again before sending it to Trump's desk, and many House
31:34
Republicans are unhappy with the Senate's changes to the measure.
31:39
About a dozen members of the hard line House Freedom Caucus,
31:43
almost all of whom voted for the bill last month,
31:46
are upset that the Senate version would add more to
31:49
the federal deficit. Other House Republicans have balked at the
31:53
Senate bill's medicate funding cuts, which are deeper than the
31:57
House version. They fear the cuts will hurt Medicaid recipients
32:01
and lead royal hospitals in their districts to clubs or
32:05
According to House Republicans who spoke on the condition of
32:07
anonymity to detail private discussions with Republican leadership and their colleagues,
32:13
moderate Republicans in the House have privately expressed concern that
32:18
Trump lashed out at Tillet's for voting against starting debate
32:21
on the bill. Some of them are worried Trump will
32:24
punish lawmakers with concerns about the bill rather than hearing
32:28
them out, even if voting for the bill means some
32:31
of them lose their seats, costing Republicans their thin House majority.
32:36
Republicans who vote for the bill could also face political risk.
32:41
Elon Musk, the billionaire and former White House adviser who
32:45
broke with Trump after criticizing the bill, pledged Monday to
32:49
try to defeat Republicans who vote for the bill who
32:52
campaigned on cutting government spending. Those Republicans will lose their
32:57
primary next year if it is the last thing I
32:59
do on Earth, Musk wrote on x He also said
33:03
he would support Representative Thomas Massey, Republican from Kentucky, whom
33:08
Trump has threatened with a primary for voting against the bill.
33:12
Democrats have been determined to make the bill's passage through
33:15
the Senate as painful as possible. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer,
33:21
Democrat from New York, demanded that the entire nine hundred
33:25
forty page legislation be read aloud on the Senate floor,
33:29
which took nearly sixteen hours. Only after the reading did
33:33
debate begin in earnest on the Senate floor Sunday afternoon.
33:38
Democrats offered an onslaught of motions Monday to revise the
33:42
bill before the final vote, all of which failed, although
33:45
many of them drew support from one or two Republicans.
33:49
The idea is to force Republicans to take uncomfortable votes
33:53
that Democrats can use to hammer them when they run
33:56
for reelection. Murkowski had voted with Democrats on five of
34:00
them by early evening, underscoring her concerns with aspects of
34:04
the legislation. Schumer accused Republicans of negotiating back room deals
34:10
as a work to secure the votes. We can't get
34:13
things done the way we're supposed to unless they show
34:16
us how they're changing the bill, Schumer told reporters Monday.
34:20
Republicans scoffed at the accusation. A lot of this suggests
34:25
the Democrats going through their stages of grief with stupid
34:28
amendments that will vote down. Senator Eric Schmidt, Republican from Missouri, said,
34:33
for them, there's nothing left but the crying. I'm afraid.
34:37
Voting on amendments was slow. At five p m. After
34:41
eight hours of non stop voting, Schmidt said the Senate
34:45
was only in the bottom of the third inning of
34:47
the slog known as a Vodherama. Republican aids privately suggested
34:53
that the approach signaled that Senate Majority Leader John Thunne,
34:57
Republican from South Dakota, was still votiating behind the scenes
35:01
with potential Republican holdouts. Republicans are using a process known
35:06
as reconciliation to dodge a Democratic filibuster and pass the
35:11
bill with a simple majority, but the process forces Republicans
35:15
to make sure every line of the bill complies with
35:18
a Bird Rule, which governs what can and can't be
35:22
included in reconciliation bills. Elizabeth McDonough, the Senate parliamentarian charged
35:28
with determining whether provisions violate the Bird Rule, was still
35:31
reviewing legislative language Monday evening. According to Senator Mark Wayne Mullen,
35:36
Republican from Oklahoma, that's part of the reason that voting
35:40
was going so slowly, he said. The amendments are coming
35:44
in faster than she can get to them, so we're
35:47
actually having to just vote on them as they come out,
35:50
Mullen told reporters. Senators are set to vote on Republican
35:54
amendments as well as Democratic ones, including one from Senator
35:58
Rick Scott, Republicans from Florida that would reduce the rate
36:02
at which the federal government reimburses states that have expanded
36:06
Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act for new enroll Lease
36:10
Scott and three other Republican holdouts on Saturday demanded a
36:14
vote on the amendment in exchange for their votes to
36:17
start debate on the bill. The bill would extend expiring
36:21
tax cuts passed during Trump's first term and make permanent
36:25
several corporate tax breaks the White House hopes will spur
36:29
economic growth. It includes a trier of Trump's populist campaign
36:33
promises no taxes on tips, over time wages, or auto
36:37
loan interest. It would also add six thousand dollars to
36:41
the standard deduction for seniors, in a nod to another
36:44
Trump campaign pledge ending taxes on Social Security benefits. The
36:49
bill would cut one point one trillion dollars from health
36:52
benefits programs, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and by
36:57
twenty thirty four, nearly twelve million million people would lose
37:01
health insurance. FUM defended the bill's Medicaid provisions Monday as
37:06
necessary to rein in federal spending on the program. In
37:10
the time I've been here, we have never ever done
37:13
anything to reform and improve and strengthen these programs that
37:16
are growing at an unsustainable rate that will wreck our
37:20
economy and wreck our country if we don't start making
37:22
some changes soon, said on the Senate floor. So yet,
37:26
there are some improvements and reforms to medicate to make
37:29
it more efficient, to make sure that people who are
37:32
supposed to benefit from Medicaid do and that it doesn't
37:35
go to people who shouldn't benefit from Medicaid. Paul Kane
37:39
contributed to this report. Our next item is entitled Inside
37:45
the largest US health care fraud bus ten point six
37:48
billion dollar global scam swamped Medicare with a flood of
37:53
phony claims by Dan Diamond and Lauren Webber. Gerald Quindry
37:58
was facing a quandry. The seventy three year old retired
38:02
engineer received a statement last year that Medicare, his health
38:06
insurance provider, had been billed fifteen thousand, five hundred dollars
38:10
for urinary catheters, but his doctor had never ordered them
38:14
and Quindrey never wanted nor received them. Quendrey complained to Medicare,
38:20
but he said the representative seemed nonplussed by his complaint
38:24
and he could find little information about the incident himself
38:27
beyond news reports of catheter related fraud in the government program. Obviously,
38:33
somebody deserves to be in jail, Quindrey told the Washington
38:36
Post in February. Four months later, several people are and
38:41
they are facing criminal charges in what the government says
38:44
is the largest health care fraud bust in US history.
38:48
Quindrey was one of more than one million Americans whose
38:51
personal information was compromised in an alleged ten point six
38:55
billion dollar fraud scheme, the details of which were unsealed
38:59
last week and announced by federal officials Monday. The two
39:03
year investigation, dubbed Operation gold Rush, uncovered a conspiracy to
39:08
purchase more than thirty small health care supply companies that
39:12
were already enrolled of Medicare. Official said conspirators then used
39:17
those companies to submit a flood of claims for urinary catheters,
39:21
continuous glucose monitors, and other supplies that were not medically necessary.
39:25
Law enforcement officials alleged the numbers were often eye popping.
39:30
Beginning in late twenty twenty two, the companies collectively submitted
39:34
fraudulent claims to Medicare for more than one billion urinary catheters.
39:39
Officials said, I don't even know if the United States
39:43
has the ability to manufacture one billion catheters in such
39:46
a short time, said Isaac Bledsoe, director of Strategic Projects
39:50
and Initiatives as a Department of Health and Human Services
39:53
Inspector General's Office, which helped lead the investigation along with
39:57
the Justice Department and the FBI. The absurdity, the brazenness
40:01
of these actors is really just astounding. Federal officials were
40:06
able to prevent more than ninety nine percent of the
40:08
Medicare payments from reaching the alleged perpetrators, saying that teams
40:13
at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the
40:16
HHS Inspector General's Office moved quickly to identify fraudulent bills,
40:21
suspend payments to the suspected companies, and partner with other
40:25
federal agencies that launched Operation gold Rush in early twenty
40:29
twenty three. They also said they had been able to
40:32
seize tens of millions of dollars in fraud proceeds. Bledsoe
40:37
said it showed how the federal government has moved from
40:39
its long standing pay and chase approach, where agencies would
40:43
pay out claims before identifying fraud and then try to
40:47
claw the money back, to a stop and caught model.
40:51
But the perpetrators authorities alleged were still able to collect
40:55
about one billion dollars in payments from other insurance companies
40:59
that helped cover for older Americans health care costs, known
41:02
as Medicare supplemental insurers. Those insurers were contractually obligated to
41:08
reimburse claims processed by Medicare, even if Medicare didn't end
41:12
up paying out the claims, officials said. For instance, Quindrey
41:16
said his supplemental insurance company, Blue Cross Boushield of Illinois,
41:21
paid twenty percent of his fraudulent fifteen thousand, five hundred
41:24
dollars bill. Federal officials Monday also announced that they had
41:29
disrupted other alleged health care fraud schemes potentially worth four
41:33
billion dollars in total, including some focused on telemedicine, genetic testing,
41:39
and opioid trafficking, as part of an ongoing government initiative
41:43
aimed at health care fraud. These criminals didn't just steal
41:47
someone else's money. They stole from you, Matthew R. Gallioti,
41:51
headed the Justice Department's Criminal Division, said at Monday's news conference,
41:56
where he was flanked by CMS administrator Mementov and other
42:00
federal officials. Nineteen people have been charged with helping coordinate
42:04
the Operation gold Rush scheme. According to indictments unsealed last
42:09
week in federal court in New York, Illinois and other states,
42:13
the alleged conspirators, who include people from Estonia, Kazakistan and Russia,
42:18
phased charges of conspiracy, health care fraud, and money laundering
42:23
that could send them to prison for years. At least
42:26
one has taken a plea deal, according to public court dockets,
42:30
Seven alleged conspirators were intercepted at US airport departure gates
42:34
and at the US border with Mexico, officials said, while
42:38
others have fled the US. Four defendants were apprehended in
42:42
Estonia as a result of cooperation with Estonian law enforcement,
42:45
officials said. The Post last year first revealed the federal investigation.
42:51
Gabriel L. Emperato, a partner with the Nelson Mullen's law
42:54
firm and a former HHS lawyer, said medicare supplies have
42:58
long been a target for oversees health care fraud rings,
43:02
which have often deployed similar tactics in hopes of tapping
43:05
the sprawling, multi billion dollar market. It's just an opportunity
43:10
for international criminals, Imperado said, adding that frausters have used
43:14
similar tactics for decades. It's a never ending quest to
43:18
try to get beyond the wacamole phenomena. Officials said. The
43:22
episode underscores the vulnerabilities in the American healthcare system and
43:27
the complexity of cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse,
43:31
a vowed political priority of the Trump administration. The US
43:35
Doze Service and its former leader, Elon Musk, repeatedly highlighted
43:40
the risks of Medicare fraud this year, although with sometimes
43:43
misleading or false claims. The episode also resulted in mass
43:48
confusion for patients across the country. Medicare and its contractors
43:53
received more than four hundred thousand complaints related to the
43:56
Catholic scheme, federal officials said, with old older Americans demanding
44:01
to know why their Medicare accounts had been billed by
44:04
companies such as Pretty and Pink and Main Street Dme.
44:08
The scheme eensteared more than seven thousand physicians whose identities
44:12
were used to order medical supplies without their knowledge. According
44:16
to officials, in in meshed legitimate companies that happened to
44:20
share the same name as the alleged perpetrators, such as
44:23
the Pretty and Pink Boutique in Tennessee, an unrelated cancer
44:27
supply store that was so drowned by complaints it posted
44:31
instructions on how to report insurance fraud. It frustrated accountable
44:36
care organizations groups of hospitals and physicians that received federal
44:40
incentives to deliver high quality, low cost health care, which
44:45
worried that they could collectively lose millions of dollars in
44:48
payments because it appeared they were failing to manage their
44:52
patient's health care spending. The National Association of ACOS and
44:56
Industry trade group publicized the alleged fraud last year. The
45:01
CMS subsequently issued a rule to change how it paid
45:04
for catheters and effectively protect the accountable care organizations from
45:08
the spike in cather bills, and the scheme angered lawmakers
45:13
who demanded answers on why the alleged fraud had gone
45:17
publicly unreported for more than a year. Targeting healthcare supplies
45:23
known as durable medical equipment or DME, such as wheelchairs, catheters,
45:29
and woondcare dressings, have long been an alluring target for scammers,
45:33
in part because of the sheer number of claims as
45:36
submitted every day for payment. Medicare will pay eighty percent
45:41
of DME claims if the equipment is prescribed by a physician,
45:45
and Medicare supplemental insurers will often pay the remaining balance.
45:50
Bledsoe said the DME market also had a low barrier
45:53
for entry for would be frosters, compared with other healthcare
45:57
schemes that would require medical degree or and knowledge. With
46:01
a d m E company, you essentially need space, supplies,
46:05
and a person, and sometimes you don't even need the supplies.
46:09
Bloodsoe said. The alleged conspirators homed in on intermitting urinary cathers,
46:15
tubes of patients insert several times a day to drain
46:18
their bladders and treat in continence. Urinate cathers made an
46:22
appealing target for potential scammers because orders for the low
46:26
cost products could escape some of the scrutiny that a
46:29
company's billing for expensive equipment, surgeries, and other high cost
46:33
claims products would set. The alleged conspirators were then able
46:38
to obtain sensitive Medicare information for about one point two
46:42
million Americans, officials set We have seen instances where Medicare
46:47
beneficiary information can be bought and sold on LinkedIn on Craigslist.
46:52
Blodsoe set, it is available if you know where to look,
46:55
and it's not too hard to run across it. The
46:58
alleged conspirators purchased small companies such as Priority One Medical Equipment,
47:04
a medical supply company in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for two
47:07
hundred thousand dollars in March twenty twenty four. According to
47:11
charging documents. They hired US based office managers through Internet
47:15
postings and phone calls, relying on those workers to collect
47:19
mail and deposit checks. They then used cryptocurrency, virtual private servers,
47:25
and other means to cloak their identities and move money
47:28
out of the U. S officials said a majority of
47:32
the fraud occurred by individuals who never even set foot
47:35
in the United States. Bledso said as federal officials steadily
47:40
identify the potential fraud, the CMS suspended payments to the
47:44
companies and placed the funds in escro. As federal officials investigated,
47:49
more than five point five billion dollars in Medicare funds
47:52
remained suspended. Bloodsoe said, pass calls to telephone numbers listed
47:57
in state and federal records for Priority One, Pretty in
48:00
Pink and other companies being investigated led to busy signals,
48:05
inactive numbers, and voicemail. Charging documents offered vivid depictions of
48:10
how investigators surveiled suspects, inspected their offices, and confronted some
48:15
alleged conspirators as they attempted to leave or enter the country.
48:20
Investigators viewed no indication a legitimate d m E business
48:24
was being run out of the location, as investigators did
48:28
not observe any medical supplies or d m E inside
48:31
the business, according to one court filing that included photos
48:35
depicting the interior a Priority one a small office with
48:39
empty shelves. Meanwhile, the company was in the midst of
48:43
billing Medicare for about six hundred sixty seven million dollars,
48:47
claiming that it had provided urinate, cathers and glucust monitors
48:52
to about fifty thousand Medicare beneficiaries. Fast paced fraud. Federal
48:58
officials set Operation gold Rush's work is not finished, noting
49:02
that some of the alleged conspirators are still at large
49:06
and that new companies continue to run the same playbook.
49:11
Stephen Knuckles, a healthcare executive who helped publicize the catheter
49:15
fraud last year, said that accountable care organizations have identified
49:19
similar patterns of fraud this year around products such as
49:22
skin substitutes, knee braces, and other dme. While Medicare issued
49:27
a rule last year to shield healthcare groups of catheter fraud,
49:31
the newer fraudulent bills are threatening his and other organizations again.
49:36
He said, it's disappointing that CMS does not seem to
49:39
have meaningfully adjusted its approach to prevent repeat abuse. Knuckles,
49:44
the CEO of Coast of Carolina Healthcare, wrote in an
49:47
email the CMS did not immediately respond to a request
49:51
for comments. Cima Burma, who led the CMS in the
49:56
first Trump administration, said the systems used to catch fraud
50:00
and sometimes involved paper records. Now, with technology and artificial intelligence,
50:05
there's much more opportunity. She said. The digitalization of medical records,
50:11
the ability to interact with patients through portals, and the
50:14
introduction of AI will make it easier to combat the
50:18
fraud and abuse that is plagued the healthcare industry, said Verma,
50:22
whose executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health
50:25
and Life Sciences. It's going to result in more arrests
50:29
and greater protection for patients and taxpayers. Jetson. Later Louis,
50:34
an assistant Boston University professor focused on health care fraud,
50:38
told the Post last year that the government needed to
50:41
invest more in detection through artificial intelligence, machine learning, and
50:45
better data to save billions. He said. The government is
50:49
getting better, the frausters are getting better, he said, and
50:53
maybe the fraudsters are getting better faster. Federal officials said
50:57
they were meeting the moment, noting that the all such
51:00
perpetrators at the center of Operation gold Rush received only
51:03
a sliver of their ten billion dollars in Medicare claims.
51:07
They also announced the creation of a health care fraud
51:10
Data Fusion Center, which officials said would allow agencies to
51:14
use cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics to share information,
51:20
identify fraud schemes, and quickly prevent funds from being paid.
51:25
As the criminals get smart, we get smarter. Chris Shrank,
51:29
HHS Deputy Inspector General for Investigation said in a statement,
51:33
we share insights and experience to stay one step ahead.
51:37
Aaron Schaeffer and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report. Our
51:42
next item is entitled Fight over Statue Royals. Town that
51:46
tried to heal divides. What began as effort to promote
51:50
racial unity energize Confederate supporters in North Carolina instead by
51:56
Gregory S. Snyder from Edenton, North Carolina. Confederate supporters arrived first,
52:03
establishing a Saturday morning base near the town waterfront with
52:06
save our History signs and Civil War information sheets. Some
52:11
sported red MAGA hats and shirts that proclaimed America First,
52:15
or in one case, if you don't like Trump, then
52:18
you probably won't like me, and I'm okay with that.
52:22
The opposition showed up about two hours later, carrying stark
52:25
white signs with black letters, removed this statue for the
52:30
next two hours, as they've done nearly every Saturday for
52:33
the past three years. The groups mingled with confused tourists
52:37
in a seemingly unending fight over a Confederate monument at
52:41
the heart of this historic town, which is nearly sixty
52:44
percent black. What started is an effort to promote racial
52:48
unity in the eton by reconsidering its most prominent downtown
52:51
symbol has done the opposite. A chapter of the Sons
52:55
of Confederate Veterans, long extinct, locally sprang to life. The
53:00
forgotten Confederate Memorial Day was resurrected and commemorated again last
53:04
month with a wreath laying and row call of the
53:07
rebel dead, and the town council, which had formed a
53:11
Human Relations commission in twenty twenty to consider steps for
53:14
racial reconciliation last fall, came up with a novel way
53:18
to handle the statue of a generic Confederate soldier. Take
53:22
it down from the waterfront, add it to the court
53:25
house facing north. The green fatina figure of the soldier,
53:29
one of many that were once found throughout the south,
53:32
stands atop a stone column on a grassy traffic medium
53:36
where the town market once stood. Enslaved people were bought,
53:40
sold or offered for hire on that spot. The Civil
53:44
War is a small part of the long heritage of Edenton,
53:47
a town of about four thousand, five hundred located in
53:51
Chowan Crowning near the western end at Albemarle Sound. Today,
53:55
the town thries on tourism. Its streets an Americanic infection
53:59
a pre revolution colonial homes next to Victorian fantasies next
54:03
to nineteen twenties cottages. Broad Street is lined with shops
54:07
and restaurants, A promenade of a quaintance leading straight down
54:10
to the water, and the Confederate monument now mired and
54:14
legal challenges. Moving the monument would be the first time
54:18
in a decade that any locality in the United States
54:21
has added a Confederate statue on courthouse grounds, according to
54:25
a study published last month by the Southern Poverty Law Center,
54:29
a legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public
54:33
interest litigation. At a moment when the Trump administration is
54:37
scrubbing prominent black historic figures from US government websites and
54:42
condemning Smithsonian exhibits on race as a devisive ideology, the
54:46
Edington statute drama community activism followed by a resurgence of
54:50
the old order seems to embody the nation's pivot from
54:54
the reckonings of twenty twenty that were prompted by the
54:57
murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. States and localities
55:02
removed or renamed one hundred sixty nine Confederate memorials in
55:06
twenty twenty. According to the recent spls' study, the fourth
55:11
update of a survey originally conducted in twenty sixteen, Removals
55:15
have declined every year since, plummeting last year to two.
55:19
The study found through an analysis of federal, state, and
55:22
local data. Head researcher Riefka Meislisch said the slowdown is
55:27
at least partly attributable to the revival of lost cause
55:30
sentiment by President Donald Trump, who has called for reinstating
55:34
Confederate names on military basis and has issued an executive
55:38
order that could restore Confederate monuments to federal property. The
55:42
town from the White House gives an extra sense of
55:45
empowerment to those who have come out to defend the
55:47
Edenton Monument every weekend for the past three years. On
55:51
a recent sunny Saturday, Ron Toppin eighty and two helpers
55:56
set up a canopy over tables neatly lined with trays
55:59
of confeds Ter information chiefs and hit the sidewalk two
56:02
hours before their opponents arrived. Trump's election. They's a country
56:07
a whole lot better, said Tappin, whose late wife used
56:10
to organize the informational materials for the group, and who
56:13
said his great great grandfather was a rebel soldier captured
56:16
by the Union in eighteen sixty three. We've got America back.
56:21
Mike Dean, commander of the Edington Belle Battery of the
56:24
sons of Confederate veterans roared up on us. Harley dubbed
56:28
Traveler after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's horse, and took
56:32
command of the outpost. When a few protesters began marching
56:36
up the sidewalk, Dean gestured to a woman walking by
56:39
with a sign that read, remove this statue. Understand. Dean
56:43
said these are Marxists. Marxists want to destroy history. He
56:48
was referring to Deborah Miller sixty six, a retired human
56:52
resources specialist who grew up at Eatington. Miller is white,
56:56
but remembers protesting as a teenager when officials fired her
57:00
her high school's black band teacher. She recalls white people
57:03
saying the Confederate statue, completed in nineteen o nine but
57:07
moved to its current spot in nineteen sixty one, would
57:10
remind black people to stay in their place. Decades later,
57:14
there are no black owned businesses along South broad Street,
57:17
the main downtown thoroughfare. Only two members of the town
57:21
council are black, and the community has never had a
57:24
black mayor. Removing a statue that glorifies a confederacy wouldn't
57:29
be destroying history, Miller said it would be correcting it
57:33
with this statue. There's so much prejudice that I've seen
57:36
through the years. She said that I'd rather just see
57:39
it gone settled. In the mid sixteen hundreds, the town
57:44
was the first colonial capital of North Carolina, and at
57:47
one point rivaled near by Norfolk as a port. In
57:51
seventeen seventy four, Edenton resident Penelope Barker, whose husband was
57:55
away in England, heard about the Boston Tea Party and
57:58
rallied the women of Edenton to stay to tea dump
58:01
of their own. There act to ridicule from Britain, but
58:04
it is remembered as arguably the first example of social
58:08
activism by American women. A half century later, Edenton with
58:12
a maritime stop on the Underground railroad. Over the centuries,
58:17
some of its residents have earned national prominence for their
58:19
roles in flights for freedom and civil rights. And due
58:23
to the constraints of time, will be unable to complete
58:26
this item. This concludes the readings of the Washington Post
58:30
for to Day, Tuesday, July first, twenty twenty five. Your
58:33
reader to day has been Cindy Fraser. If you have
58:36
any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please feel
58:41
free to call us at A five nine four two
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two six three nine zero. Thank you for listening, and
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now please stay tuned