Senator Hassan Blasts Rule Allowing Dark Money to Finance Opioid Misinformation Campaigns in Committee Hearing

WASHINGTON – Senator Maggie Hassan, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday, blasted a ruling by the Treasury Department and the IRS that allows “dark money” groups to hide the identities of their major donors from law enforcement. That Treasury/IRS ruling could make it more difficult for law enforcement to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for funding the spread of fraudulent misinformation on opioid addiction. The ruling was made without any public notice or comment period.

Senator Hassan pressed Brent McIntosh, nominee to be Under Secretary of the Treasury of International Affairs, and Brian Callanan, nominee to be General Counsel for Treasury, on their role in issuing this ruling without public notice. Both McIntosh and Callanan, who were serving in the Treasury Department General Counsel’s office when the ruling was issued, defended the actions taken by the Treasury Department and the IRS to deny any opportunity for public comment.

Senator Hassan pushed back against the witnesses testimony, saying, “There is a reason that Congress requires public notice: it is so that rules can't be changed behind closed doors to favor special interests. If you all had followed the law or even – if you don’t think it’s legally required – had exercised caution and perhaps had a little bit of restraint here, we would’ve heard concerns about holding big pharma accountable and tracking down dark money donations […] And now I’m faced – like so many others all across this country – with the fact that it’s now going to be much harder when these kinds of interest groups are funded to catch the bad actors and hold them accountable.”

Last year, as part of her efforts to hold corporate special interests accountable, Senator Hassan voted to reverse this same “dark money” ruling from the Treasury Department and the IRS. Additionally, during a February Senate Finance Committee hearing on prescription drug costs, Senator Hassan confronted a top Janssen Pharmaceuticals executive for her company’s role in spreading misinformation about addiction that helped fuel the opioid crisis.

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