Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Herb Kohl, authors of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, today made the following comments on news that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) needs more time to implement the act and will not begin data collection until 2013.  CMS' statement is available here.

Grassley said, "It's disappointing that CMS won't even collect data at all this year.  The process has dragged on long past the statutory deadline for implementation.  Consumers need to know more about the financial relationships between their doctors and drug companies sooner rather than later.   It's important that CMS get this right in every way, including the usefulness and accuracy of the information.  Given all of the extra time, CMS will have no further excuses for not accomplishing these goals."

Kohl said, "While I am disappointed by this delay and the timeline, I do look forward to working with CMS to finalize the rules so that data collection can begin in January 2013."

The senators developed the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which was signed into law in 2010, after revelations of significant under-reporting of the amount of payments received by certain doctors from drug and device companies.  The new law requires public disclosure of the financial relationships between physicians and the pharmaceutical, medical device and biologics industries. The law required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish reporting procedures for applicable manufacturers to submit information, as well as procedures for making that information available to the public, by October 1, 2011. CMS issued the guidance in December after more than a year of pushing for a timely release from Grassley and Kohl.

Grassley and Kohl have written to the acting CMS administrator with questions about implementation, including when CMS will begin data collection.

The text of the Grassley-Kohl April 4 letter to the acting CMS administrator is available here.

The acting CMS administrator's May 3 response is available here.

It's a parent's nightmare; seeing your child bullied for standing up for his lifestyle or what he believes.  When your child is targeted or ridiculed by another child, you see it as an opportunity for intervention; teach appropriate behavior so each child comes to appreciate their differences while hopefully becoming more respectful adults.

But, what do you do if your child is bullied by an adult, an adult who disagrees with your child's lifestyle or pokes fun at his passion?  That's what happened to Jamie Pudenz at the recent FFA Convention in Ames.

Jamie, a shy farm kid from Carroll, is one of those rare finds; a teenager who works hard, doesn't complain and speaks glowingly about his parents, his teachers, his fellow students.  He sets the bar high for himself and constantly strives to push himself.  His passion for the land and livestock is the very quality you hope all future farmers possess.

FFA Advisor Kolby Burch says when this football-playing  junior takes on a new project, he tackles it with the seriousness of a preacher preparing for a Sunday sermon.  It was quite a challenge for him to enter the FFA Public Speaking contest.  His entry, "Unveiling the HSUS and the Need for Animal Agriculture," was written with passion.   He spent months preparing and practicing out-loud.  He sailed through preliminary contests, but took the stage at state, knowing it was a controversial subject for a wider audience. "I knew going to the state level, I'd face resistance; I put it in the back of my head, just went to the front of the room, took a deep breath and got started," said Jamie.

According to the rules, the purpose of the FFA Public Speaking event is "to develop agricultural leadership, communication skills and promote interest in leadership and citizenship by providing member participation in agricultural public speaking activities."  While the rules state that judges don't need an ag background, they should all be 'competent and impartial.'  Normally, judges are chosen well in-advance, but because of a scheduling snag, a last-minute FFA alumni from Illinois became the third judge.

As soon as Jamie finished his speech, the volunteer judge, decked out in Birkenstock sandals, white socks, a rumpled cotton shirt and jeans, leaned forward and asked, "Is feeding cattle 100 percent efficient?"   Jamie wasn't sure at first what to say.  "I closed my speech about livestock and how we feed them corn because they can't be sustained on grass alone, so I told him we feed them out and it's much more efficient.  But before he let me finish he said, "No, you're completely wrong."

He then proceeded to berate Jamie on how animals are meant to be raised on pasture and raising them indoors is a perversion of nature, horrible for the environment and the cause of all society ills. He then jabbed a finger at him and said, "And, another thing, you call this a 'Works Cited' page? Who taught you how to do a 'Works Cited' Page? This is a mess!"

Jamie says he was surprised by the harsh tone and unsure of the implications of the comment, so he defended his English teacher who helped him with the 'Works Cited' formatting.

FFA advisor Burch says the burly teen held his composure, but was choking back emotion after he left the room, his confidence shaken.

Jamie Pudenz isn't interested in a career as a public speaker or writer.  He doesn't dream of being a politician or sportscaster.  He wants to be a farmer, just like his dad.   "We need livestock production around. If I don't' start talking about the threats against us now, it's myself, my friends, my neighbors who will pay. If HSUS shuts us down, I'm out of a job. So are so many other kids like me."

I believe, as most farmers do, that consumers should have a choice when it comes to their food and farmers do their best to provide them.  There will never be a return to the days when everyone farmed the same way and consumers didn't care for the narrative.  Consumer demand for choice should be the tie that binds Iowa's incredibly diverse farmers together.    And, choosing one type of food production over another shouldn't involve 'shooting the messenger,'  whether that messenger is a consumer, a farmer or a child.  Anything less is, well, being a bully.

But, at the end of the day it seems to me Jamie can already teach a valuable lesson to those who think it's someone else's job to 'do PR.'   He won't give up.  His quest to tell the diverse story of ag is even bolder because of the resistance he met in a wider audience.   He's ready for 'round two.'  How about you?

Grassley Seeks Detailed Accounting of IRS Whistleblower Office Obstacles

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has asked the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to answer a detailed series of questions aimed at understanding why the IRS whistleblower office has been so slow in processing cases and making rewards.  Grassley expressed his "extreme disappointment in the management of the program" in a letter to the agency.

"The IRS does not have a problem attracting whistleblowers," Grassley said.  "The IRS has a problem processing whistleblower information and compensating whistleblowers in a timely manner.  I'm hearing frustration from whistleblowers, and my worst fears are coming true.  The lack of progress is demoralizing whistleblowers, and they might stop coming forward.  That would be a bad outcome for the taxpayers."

Grassley's latest inquiry was prompted in part by revelations that the director of the IRS whistleblower program was a panelist at the Offshore Alert Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami Beach.  "It seems the whistleblower office director's time might be better spent reviewing hundreds of existing cases instead of attending a conference that isn't directed at potential whistleblowers," Grassley said.

Grassley wrote to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to seek a status update on several benchmarks that would indicate progress in the whistleblower program.  The letter is the latest step in Grassley's oversight of the whistleblower office.

Grassley wrote the 2006 law improving the IRS whistleblower office.  He modeled the improvements after the successful 1986 whistleblower amendments to the federal False Claims Act, which have brought back more than $30 billion to the federal treasury and deterred even more fraudulent activity.

The text of Grassley's latest letter is available here.

The text of Grassley's September 2011 letter to the IRS is available here.  The IRS' November 2011 response is available here.

The text of Grassley's letter to the Treasury secretary in June 2010 is available here.

SPRINGFIELD - May 2, 2012. In his keynote address at the Illinois Retail Merchants Association's annual business day, Governor Pat Quinn called on Illinois business leaders to push for solutions that rescue Illinois' Medicaid and public pension systems this legislative session. The two fast-growing areas of state spending are on unsustainable paths, jeopardizing their existence, those who depend on them, and the state's ability to fund core services like education and public safety. Uncertainty caused by inaction on these two critical issues makes it more difficult for businesses and the state to plan for long-term needs and growth.

"The best thing we can do for businesses right now in Illinois is restore fiscal stability to our state," Governor Quinn said. "I urge you to advocate for solutions on pensions and Medicaid like never before and make sure your voice is heard these next few weeks by the members of the General Assembly."

Governor Quinn recently proposed a plan to fundamentally restructure the Medicaid system and save it from collapse by creating $2.7 billion in savings. The governor's Medicaid plan cuts waste, fraud and abuse, and raises the price of cigarettes to bring back dollar for dollar federal matching funds and help make people healthier. The governor also recently proposed a bold plan to stabilize the pension system, which is expected to save taxpayers $65 to $85 billion, eliminate the unfunded liability and allow public employees who have faithfully contributed to the system to continue to receive pension benefits.

Governor Quinn told business leaders in attendance that unless state lawmakers address these issues this spring, the consequences of inaction will be devastating to the state's economic recovery and ability to provide basic services.

Together, Medicaid and pensions now account for 39% of state general revenue spending, putting a tremendous squeeze on the rest of the budget. Illinois is expected to end this fiscal year with almost $2 billion in unpaid Medicaid bills, caused in part by rising medical costs, increased enrollment during the Great Recession and a deferral of $1.9 billion in last year's bills to this fiscal year. Without immediate and fundamental restructuring of the Medicaid system, the non-partisan Civic Federation projects that Illinois' unpaid bills will rise to $21 billion by 2017. According to the PEW Center for the States, Illinois' unfunded pension liability is the worst in the nation.

Ratings agencies have repeatedly cited continued inaction on Medicaid and pension reform as potential reasons to downgrade Illinois' bond rating, which could effectively halt critical capital improvements and road safety projects. Stabilizing these systems is also necessary to ensure the continuation of the Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction plan, which has benefited businesses across the state through modern infrastructure that increases efficiency and keeps them competitive.

For more information about Governor Quinn's reform proposals that will save Illinois' Medicaid and pension systems to make them sustainable, while restoring stability to the state budget, please visit his announcements for Medicaid and pension reform.