Talmadge had his committee staff show Champion's responses to Walsh, who disagreed with them. Later, Walsh submitted an affadavit giving his version of the incidents that led to his resignation. The committee staff also suspected that the directives from Califano and Champion to put the investigation under the General Counsel's Office were the result of pressure from California's governor or congressional delegation. The Congressional committees had been under pressure to go easy on probes into California Medicare fraud, so Talmadge and company reasoned that HEW could have been responding to similar pressure. Champion's ties to California also made them suspect dirty work at the corssroads.
Second Hearing
So the committee scheduled another hearing on Champion's nomination for March 17 to get to the bottom of the Souza scandal. Champion was the target, of course, because he alone of the participants in the February 4 meeting was still unconfirmed. But there was a sudden death in Talmadge's family, so the hearing was rescheduled for March 23.
It was at that hearing last week that Talmadge read a statement saying that while HEW "had not distinguished itself" in investigating fraud, he did not want to hold up Champion's nomination any longer.
Other senators, sitting behind a table at the end of a hearing room packed with more than 100 spectators, chimed in with praise for Champion. Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.) said Champion was "transparently honest and impeccably honorable," and others praised him as "able" and "honorable." But Sen. Carl Curtis (R-Neb.) held the vote up until after the committee could hear from Califano in person, so word was sent down Capitol Hill that his testimony was needed.
Califano came up from his office in the new HEW building just a few blocks down Independence Avenue, and took the witness chair next to Walsh.
Walsh reluctantly agreed with Califano that the whole affair was basically a "misunderstanding" about how much supervision Califano wanted the General Counsel's Office to exercise. Califano and the senators then agreed that Walsh was a fine investigator, and that welfare cheaters should be prosecuted, and that Champion was a fine choice for Undersecretary. On that note, with half the senators standing up in their rush to leave the hearing, the Finance Committee voted unanimously to confirm Champion. The full Senate is expected to approve his nomination sometime this week.
In March of 1973, reporters crowded into a hearing room on Capitol Hill to watch the Senate Judiciary Committee grill L. Patrick Gray, Nixon's nominee for FBI director, about his role in the Watergate investigation. Like Champion, Gray was the only official available for questioning, and his nomination was eventually withdrawn. Champion was clearly luckier, for the Souza Medicare fraud scandal has apparently blown over. So he can now turn his attention to simpler problems--like welfare reform.
Too Many Cooks
But there is one minor scandal that is still brewing on the sixth floor of HEW's offices on Independence Avenue. On the day of Champion's confirmation hearing, the world learned that Califano hired a private chef for himself and Champion, using a 402-word job description that never mentioned words "chef" or "cook." After answering about ten minutes' worth of reporters' questions about Souza, Walsh, and his own nomination, the ice finally broke:
Q: OK, now, what about the chef?
Champion: Well, uh,...I never had a lunch there (at HEW with Califano) that wasn't working.
Q: Is the food any better than the Harvard Faculty Club?
Champion: Oh, even the food in the cafeteria is better than the Harvard Faculty Club.
Although he is technically on a leave of absence from Harvard, and could return, Champion seems quite at home in Washington. And it's nice to hear he's eating better.