Alicia Robinson
U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge need to get their acts together, Rep. Chris Cox charged last
week after a May 26 press conference caused public confusion over the
nation's terrorist threat level.
Cox chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. He criticized
the lack of coordination between Ashcroft, who held the press
conference to warn Americans to be on the lookout for seven people
wanted for questioning by the FBI, and Ridge, who was not at the
press conference.
The press conference appeared to some people like a new warning or
that the nation's threat level had been raised, Cox wrote in a
statement.
"Dissemination by our government of sensitive terrorism warnings
must be closely coordinated across our intelligence and law
enforcement communities," Cox's statement said. "The absence of
Secretary Ridge from [the May 26] news conference held by the
attorney general and the FBI director, and the conflicting public
messages their separate public appearances delivered to the nation,
suggests that the broad and close interagency consultation we expect
-- and which the law requires -- did not take place in this case."
Rohrabacher bill gets
second life of sorts
Despite overwhelming opposition to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's bill
that would require hospitals to check the immigration status of
noncitizens they treat, the congressman may get his way after all.
The controversial bill was voted down by 331 of 419 House members May
18, but Rohrabacher's spokesman Aaron Lewis said Wednesday that the
General Accounting Office is likely to recommend that hospitals
collect immigration data anyway.
Rohrabacher's bill was an attempt to cut the flow of illegal
immigrants by lopping benefits they can receive. It also would have
addressed how to disburse the $1 billion over four years that a
federal Medicare bill earmarked to pay back hospitals offering care
to illegal immigrants who can't pay.
The GAO issued a report Friday that recommends the secretary of
health and human services "develop appropriate internal controls to
ensure payments are made only for unreimbursed emergency services for
undocumented or certain other aliens."
When hospitals want to request reimbursement, Lewis said, "you
have to determine the legality or illegality of the patient."
Critics of Rohrabacher's bill included some hospital groups, which
said it could create public health risks because fear of deportation
might deter immigrants from seeking medical care. Critics also said
