Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 26, 1994 TAG: 9407270031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hillary Rodham Clinton and White House adviser Ira Magaziner are among those who could be called to testify, said attorney Kent Masterson Brown, who represents three organizations challenging the working group's secrecy.
Hillary Clinton and Magaziner led the 500-plus-member working group's deliberations that led to the president's health care plan now before Congress.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said Monday that factual disputes over the working group's makeup must be resolved in a nonjury trial. He refused to decide the case without a trial, as requested by both the working group and the three organizations seeking to open its records.
The judge also deferred until after the trial a decision on the organizations' bid to have Magaziner held in contempt of court. The groups contend Magaziner lied in a March 1993 affidavit when he said all members of the working group were either government employees or consultants.
``False swearing is the ultimate contempt,'' Brown said. ``I think something has to be done.''
Government lawyer Mark Stern said Magaziner's statement was accurate at the time, but that the working group's makeup frequently changed.
``Not only is there no absence of good faith, there's not a problem of any kind,'' Stern said.
The working group met from January through May 1993 to make recommendations to Clinton on a health care plan.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the American Council for Health Care Reform and the National Legal Policy Center are seeking hundreds of thousands of transcripts, drafts, minutes and other documents generated by the working group.
The three organizations say the Federal Advisory Committee Act requires any such group to meet in public if it includes nongovernment members who may have their own private agendas.
Stern told Lamberth the panel was too loosely structured to be covered by the federal advisory panel law.
Brown argued that the working group included more than 350 nongovernment members and that it was organized with a rigid structure.
``Ant colonies and bee colonies sometimes look like a horde, too. But they follow a system and they follow their queen,'' Brown said. As the courtroom audience began laughing, he added, ``Here it is no different. They follow a rigid system and they follow their queen.''
Lamberth said he would discuss the timing of a trial with attorneys today.
Brown told reporters afterward that he anticipated calling Magaziner and, ``potentially,'' Hillary Clinton as witnesses to discuss the structure and mission of the health care group.
by CNB