Former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully should return his federal salary, the Government Accountability Office determined Tuesday. GAO found that Scully broke the law when he prevented his chief actuary from providing cost estimates of a Medicare prescription drug bill to Congress.

[IMGCAP(1)] GAO wrote to Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) that Scully broke the law when he threatened to fire Rick Foster in June 2003 if he provided Democrats those estimates. GAO also concluded that the Health and Human Services Department should seek repayment of Scully’s salary, because the law prohibits “the use of appropriated funds to pay the salary of a federal official who prevents another employee from communicating with Congress.”

— Emily Pierce