Ten GOP senators urge Obama to 'relieve' Sebelius over ObamaCare site woes

close

Video

Would you trust ObamaCare navigator felons with your info?

Sen. Pat Roberts on calling on HHS Secretary Sebelius to her face to resign, her admission that some ObamaCare exchange navigators are felons with access to consumers' personal info

Ten Republican senators have sent a letter to President Obama demanding he “immediately relieve” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of her duties over the botched rollout of the ObamaCare website.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, joined nine of his colleagues sin writing that it is time for Sebelius to resign over what they call the lack of accountability and poor management that led to the problems with Healthcare.gov.

“After spending more than $400 million on the failed website, taxpayers should not trust the same failed leadership to fix it,” the letter reads. “We believe that action must be taken swiftly to protect the American people from further fallout. If a similar rollout from any other national company or private sector business resulted in overwhelming and sustained problems, a high profile dismissal would be expected and appropriate.”

The letter also blames Sebelius for ignoring repeated warnings from the contractors creating the website that there were troubles before its launch, saying Sebelius “refused to give credence to these warnings.”

Besides Alexander, R-Tenn., the letter was signed by Senators Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,John Cornyn, R-Texas, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., James Risch, R-Idaho, Mark Kirk, R-Ill., John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Last month Sebelius rebuffed calls from Republicans for her to leave, saying those asking her to resign are “people I don’t work for.”

Sebelius made the comments on a tour Oct. 24 of an ObamaCare call center in Phoenix.

Sebelius said “no one is getting fired” over the glitches and that her main focus is to get the website up and running. “The majority of people calling for me to resign I would say are people who I don't work for, and who do not want this program to work in the first place,” she said. “I have had frequent conversations with the president and I've committed to him that my role is to get the program up and running and we will do just that.”

Also last month, Rep. John Fleming, R-La., sent a letter to Obama signed by 33 Republican members of Congress calling for Sebelius’ resignation over the troubled health care law roll out.