Champion And Congress

BECAUSE THE SENATE'S prevailing mood of cooperation with the White House has allowed most of President Carter's nominees--with the striking exception of Theodore Sorensen and Paul Warnke--to be confirmed with hardly a hitch, it came as no surprise that the Senate Finance Committee voted last week to recommend the confirmation of former Harvard financial vice president Hale Champion as Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

The committee's two-month delay in voting on Champion's nomination, however, pointed up the superficial and generally unsatisfactory nature of the Senate confirmation process. In late February, the Finance Committee staff brought out serious allegations of malfeasance on the part of Champion and his boss, HEW Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. If true, charges that Califano and Champion tried to impede an HEW investigation of Medicare fraud in California--bowing to pressure from the state's governor and Congressional delegation--should raise questions about their integrity and interpretation of the public interest.

But after entering the charges against Califano and Champion in the committee record last week, the health subcommittee chairman pushed aside the issues with a statement to the effect that Champion is an honest and competent man who should be confirmed without further delay.

Left unanswered in the last-minute senatorial rush to heap praise on Champion were questions about his opinions on issues like welfare reform and national health insurance, as well as potential conflict-of-interest problems arising from his previous position at Harvard. After generating some heat, but very little light, the members of the Finance Committee failed to resolve the very questions they raised, and ignored issues of possible future importance. Sadly, the Champion confirmation hearings resembled the circus that was performed all too often on Capitol Hill this spring.