Of the $2.25 million in taxpayer funding that's gone to make Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma look good, to "burnish Verma's personal brand," some went to a publicity plan designed to get her in magazines and invited to attend glitzy events. Politico has a follow-up story on the latest in Trump grifters, people in his orbit who got the contracts with Health and Human Services to fluff Verma.
Politico has emails "between high-profile media consultant Pam Stevens, whose services cost hundreds of dollars per hour, and Verma and Brady Brookes, Verma's deputy chief of staff" showing their efforts to make Verma—not the agency—look good. That's not supposed to be allowed: Federal funds are supposed to be used on programmatic publicity and not for personal publicity or private gain. Verma testified last month before Congress, "All of the contracts that we have at CMS are based on promoting the work of CMS." Because a profile of her in Glamour magazine or her showing up at the Kennedy Center Honors gala is good for CMS.
The emails discussed getting profiles of her into "key women's, leadership and general-interest magazines for potential interview/profiles." That includes a Politico podcast, AARP's magazine, Glamour, Women's Day (for an article that is apparently now in the works), and on CNN as one of the "Badass Women of Washington." All of this was intended to "highlight and promote [Verma's] leadership and accomplishments," according to one of the emails. "CMS pursued only a few of the suggestions in the proposal that were aligned with our priorities and promoted the work of the Agency and our record shows just that," a CMS spokesperson told Politico.
"I have a hard time understanding the logic that this contract was necessary for the execution of the policy positions of this administration," Rep. Joe Kennedy told Politico. He questioned Verma about those contracts in the oversight hearing, saying, "There have been important questions raised by the documents."
That's $2.25 million that should have gone into things like funding navigators and outreach for open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act. Or PSAs about getting flu shots. Or about anything related to what CMS and HHS are supposed to do: public health.
