Update: On September 19, 2024, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) voted unanimously to adopt resolutions for civil and criminal enforcement of the Committee’s subpoena to Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre.  On September 25, 2024, the full Senate voted unanimously to refer this matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute Dr. de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena, marking the first time the Senate has held someone in criminal contempt in 53 years. 

This week, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) will vote to pursue civil enforcement and criminal contempt of Congress charges against Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre.  If the vote succeeds, and it is likely it will, Dr. de la Torre will be only the second corporate executive subject to a subpoena enforcement action in the history of the Senate.

The bipartisan enforcement action, announced by Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ranking Member Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), followed a hearing last week for which Dr. de la Torre was subpoenaed to testify but failed to appear.

The use of an empty chair at a hearing to symbolize noncompliance with congressional requests has increased in recent years, but it is nonetheless a rare event on Capitol Hill.  Dr. de la Torre, remarkably, has been represented by an empty chair twice in less than six months.  In March 2024, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, launched an inquiry into financial mismanagement at Steward Health Care.  Senator Markey twice requested that Dr. de la Torre testify at a Subcommittee hearing on April 3, 2024.  Dr. de la Torre declined to appear, earning his first empty chair of the year.

In July 2024, Committee Chairman Sanders and Ranking Member Cassidy led a bipartisan vote to authorize a full committee investigation into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care and to subpoena the company’s CEO, Dr. de la Torre, to testify at the September 12, 2024, hearing.  The Committee approved both the investigation and the subpoena, marking the Committee’s first subpoena since 1981.  Dr. de la Torre’s counsel objected to the subpoena, which the Committee then rejected, proceeding with the hearing as scheduled.  According to Chairman Sanders and Ranking Member Cassidy, the Committee will pursue both civil enforcement and criminal contempt of Congress charges against Dr. de la Torre.

Since the 1800s, the Supreme Court has recognized Congress’s inherent authority to use the power of the courts to enforce congressional subpoenas.  The Senate additionally enjoys statutory power to seek civil enforcement of a subpoena by instructing Senate Legal Counsel to bring a civil suit in the District Court for the District of Columbia to require compliance.  To date, the Senate has sought to exercise its civil enforcement authority only six times and only once against a corporate executive, the CEO of an online forum accused of sex trafficking.

After the Committee authorizes the resolutions, the measures will advance to the full Senate for a vote.  If the Senate votes in favor of enforcement and the case proceeds to court, this enforcement action could carry significant implications for future corporate executives facing requests for testimony backed with threats or suggestions of a subpoena for testimony.