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Trump’s HHS nominee is mired in scandal

A Senate Finance Committee staff report raised several concerns about the conduct of Republican Rep. Tom Price.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), right, escorts Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), on Capitol Hill on January 24 prior to the start of the committee’s confirmation hearing for Price. Price is backed by Republicans but under fire from Democrats for his support for tearing down Obama’s health care overhaul and his past stock trades. CREDIT: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), right, escorts Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), on Capitol Hill on January 24 prior to the start of the committee’s confirmation hearing for Price. Price is backed by Republicans but under fire from Democrats for his support for tearing down Obama’s health care overhaul and his past stock trades. CREDIT: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Ahead of his second confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services — is facing new allegations he pushed legislation to benefit companies he had recently invested in.

According to the Wall Street Journal, last March, “Price bought shares valued at between $1,000 and $15,000 each in drug companies Amgen Inc., Bristol Meyers Squibb Co., and Eli Lilly and Co., as well as medical-device firm Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., according to congressional disclosure reports.”

Each of those companies has facilities in Puerto Rico. Three months after purchasing their stock, Price introduced legislation to make permanent an expiring tax break those companies benefited from. The bill didn’t pass.

Separately, a report released by Senate Finance Committee staff ahead of Tuesday’s hearing raised “several red flags about Price’s tax returns and financial disclosure statements,” according to CNN.

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“The accusations include Price’s alleged failure to disclose late tax payments on rental properties; undervaluing stocks he owns in a pharmaceutical company both to the committee and in his financial disclosure forms; and failure to disclose to the committee that he was previously investigated by an ethics panel for fundraising activities,” CNN reports.

The new revelations come on the heels of previous reporting about Price introducing separate legislation to benefit Zimmer Biomet shortly after he bought shares of the company.

“Last March, Price bought as much as $15,000 in stock in a company called Zimmer Biomet, one the world’s largest manufacturers of knee and hip implants,” CNN reported last week. “Within a week of that transaction, he introduced the HIP Act, a bill that would have saved Zimmer Biomet a significant amount of money by delaying implementation of a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) payment model for hip and knee replacements. After Price introduced the bill, Zimmer Biomet’s political action committee donated $1,000 to his reelection campaign.”

During his first confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions last week, Price was grilled by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) about the insider trading allegations. As ThinkProgress reported, Price admitted “that he is personally involved in making some decisions about his stocks in the biotech field, and said he made a decision about purchasing stock in a company after talking to another member of Congress who sits on that company’s board.”

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The allegations were a point of contention right out of the gate during Tuesday’s hearing. “It is hard to see this as anything but a conflict of interest and an abuse of position,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) of Price’s trades in healthcare stocks.

Price supports the privatization of Medicare, rolling back Medicaid, ending the Children’s Health Insurance Program that covers about 8 million low-income kids, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood. The Senate Finance Committee will ultimately decide whether to send his nomination to the full Senate for approval.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Price was asked about President Trump’s recent executive order reaffirming his desire to scrap the Affordable Care Act. Price said he’ll ensure “everyone has access to affordable coverage.”

“The individuals that lost coverage under the ACA, we will commit to making certain that they don’t lose coverage,” he said. But he didn’t mention that at present, Republicans have no actual plan to replace it.

If the ACA is repealed without a replacement, millions would lose their healthcare, and the result would be roughly 44,000 deaths annually, according to a Washington Post analysis.