Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and several other key Democrats are demanding a new ethics investigation into the personal finances of Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the effort to overhaul Obamacare.
The Democrats argue that the investigation, which could take months to complete, must take place and produce its findings before the Senate holds hearings on Price’s nomination to become Health and Human Services Secretary.
The ethics probes will need to occur “before any hearings on the Price nomination would begin,” Schumer told reporters Thursday.
“If there would ever be an example of the swamp that Trump has promised to drain, it would be congressmen and senators using insider information they had to buy stock,” Schumer said.
The New York Democrats also argued that Price’s trading in health care-related stock occurred “repeatedly and in such large numbers” that “every American should be shocked by this.”
He and other Democrats were quick to say that they didn’t know if Price broke any laws but pointed to the Stock Act, a law prohibiting insider trading by members of Congress, as one way to evaluate whether he did anything wrong.
Price traded hundreds of $300,000 in shares of health-related companies during the past four years, the Wall Street Journal reported in late December. Over that same period, Price authored or co-authored dozens of related bills in the House during this time that Democrats argue could affect the same companies’ stock prices.
While it’s legal for members of Congress to trade stocks, doing so while writing laws directly affecting the same companies could open lawmakers to ethical and legal risks, ethics experts say.
Schumer and top Democrats on the panel who will be reviewing Price’s confirmation as HHS secretary are calling for a House Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into the matter. The Democrats, including Sens. Patty Murray, Wash., and Ron Wyden, Ore., point out that the WSJ report chronicling the ethical issues surrounding Price came out “just days before” House Republicans “nearly gutted” the independent House ethics office they want to look into the matter, according to a release.
Murray, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the nation’s health care system, said before Price’s nomination can advance she wants to know if he talked to anyone at the companies before buying or selling stock in them, whether a broker purchased the stock or he did so himself, as well as whether any non-public information was exchanged.
“I hope that partisan politics won’t keep Republicans from insisting on a thorough investigation of Price’s [stock trading]” before his confirmation hearings, she said.
Wyden said recent reports of Price’s stock trading have raised enough questions to demand a “careful and thorough review.”
“If you’re serious about oversight, you can’t simply say it’s all a coincidence and move on,” he said.
The liberal-leaning watchdog Public Citizen released a letter Thursday calling for an investigation into Price’s stock trades, saying it should be done by the OCE as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission.
