A reader emails that economist Jon Gruber, under some fire for not having disclosed to newspaers a contract worth almost $400,000 to analyze health reform plans for the Obama administration, has held several other federal contracts.
The bulk of his government work came in the Bush years, according to the useful government database that tracks federal contracts, when he earned over $1 million for work he described as an email as serving as an expert witness in tobacco cases.
But the database also reveals a second, earlier contract with the Obama Department of Health and Human Services, issued March 25 for $95,000.
The contracted service is described as "TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR EVALUATION OPTIONS FOR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE REFORM."
Gruber told me yesterday that his work for the administration was strictly techncial -- plugging the data from health care plans into a modeling program he'd spent 10 years developing -- and independent of his public comments, which weren't always in line with White House talking points. But several reporters and newspapers have said they wish they had known of, and disclosed, the contracts. (Source)
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