GROUPS SUE FIRST LADY OVER CLOSED MEETINGS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993                   TAG: 9302250147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
GROUPS SUE FIRST LADY OVER CLOSED MEETINGS
Three groups on Wednesday sued Hillary Rodham Clinton and the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform that she chairs to force the panel's meetings open.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, contends that because Clinton is neither a public official nor a federal employee, the task force is forbidden from closing its meetings and those of working groups within it to the press and public.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the American Council for Health Care Reform and the National Legal Policy Center asked District Judge Royce Lamberth for a temporary restraining order directing that any meetings be open.
President Clinton announced the formation of the task force five days after taking office and named his wife to chair it. Its job is to design an improved health-care system for submission to Congress.
Except for the Jan. 25 announcement on its formation, there is no evidence the full task force has met, said Frank Northam, an attorney for the groups in the case.
But the suit cites newspaper accounts of working groups of health-care consultants meeting daily to study recommendations.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB