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An internal memo instructing Health and Human Services employees to consult with senior department personnel before talking to Congress has outraged two congressional Republicans, and they're demanding answers from Secretary Tom Price. In a letter released Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said federal employees have a constitutional right to communicate directly with Congress. (Freking, 5/9)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said the policy that Price’s chief of staff outlined in a memo last week “is potentially illegal and unconstitutional, and will likely chill protected disclosures of waste, fraud, and abuse.” (Eilperin, 5/9)

The chairmen acknowledge that the memo doesn’t “ultimately prohibit” direct communication, but said “it forces employees to expose their communications with Congress to agency management, necessarily subjecting them to a significantly increased risk of reprisal.” Chaffetz and Grassley requested that HHS send written guidance to agency employees clarifying that they have a right to communicate “directly and independently with Congress.” (Siddons, 5/9)

The May 3 memo from HHS Secretary Tom Price’s chief of staff, Lance Leggitt, instructed employees not to have “any communications” with members of Congress or their staffs without first consulting the department’s assistant secretary for legislation. Leggitt’s memo said he was only restating a long-standing policy on congressional relations and gave eight examples of contacts needing approval, including requests for calls, briefings, hearings and oversight. (Bluth, 5/9)