Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OR) wife bought shares of a major biopharmaceutical company just before the Department of Health and Human Services, which Blumenauer oversees as a member of a key subcommittee, handed the company hundreds of millions of dollars to load up on a radiation sickness drug. Now, that stock has skyrocketed in value.
Blumenauer’s wife, lawyer Margaret D. Kirkpatrick, snagged up to $15,000 worth of Amgen shares on Sept. 26, which was disclosed in the lawmaker’s Oct. 6 financial disclosure. Just two days before that filing, the HHS announced it was spending $290 million for supplies of Amgen’s drug Nplate — a move that has resulted in Amgen surging by over 24% as of this writing, records show.
Blumenauer is notably a member of the health subcommittee for the Ways and Means Committee. The subcommittee says on its website that it “oversees the Department of Health and Human Services’ administration,” Medicare enrollment and eligibility, and other programs.
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The HHS said it bought Nplate, which treats blood cell injuries after nuclear and radiological emergencies, to be prepared for possible national security threats. An agency spokesperson told Reuters on Oct. 7 the purchase was made with the Russia and Ukraine war in mind, given there is U.S. concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin could unleash nuclear weapons.
Multiple watchdogs told the Washington Examiner that the Amgen stock trade looks suspicious.
The trade “definitely embodies the problem with congressional stock trading,” according to Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog.
“It doesn’t matter how large the dollar values are in these situations,” he told the Washington Examiner. “The real problem is the trading in the first place since members of Congress are privy to non-public information and wield power to influence the stock market that the rest of us do not. So when these suspiciously timed stock trades happen, it is at best bad optics and at worst a potential violation of securities law, not to mention being corrosive to public trust.”
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the left-leaning think tank Public Citizen, told the Washington Examiner that the stock trade is yet another example of members of Congress making “stock trades that seem perfectly timed for personal enrichment.”
“It is not known whether Rep. Blumenauer used confidential insider information in his well-timed stock purchases of Amgen, but as a member of Congress, he is in a position to have access to information about likely government contracts that can boost the values of specific stocks,” said Holman.
“This appearance alone poses such a political liability which should be enough to prompt every member of Congress to get out of the stock market and pass legislation banning congressional stock trading activity,” he added.
Blumenauer, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is a frequent stock trade filer. In the last three years, he has disclosed 245 trades, many of which were executed by Kirkpatrick, worth over $5 million, according to data compiled by Capitol Trades.
The Sept. 26 Amgen trade was made in Kirkpatrick’s “retirement portfolio,” according to the filing.
“It’s always concerning when you have influential government officials or lawmakers making exceptionally well-timed trades that appear to enrich themselves,” Pete McGinnis, spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative, an ethics watchdog, told the Washington Examiner.
This is not Blumenauer’s first well-timed stock trade filing.
The lawmaker disclosed 31 stock purchases the same day Russia invaded Ukraine, including thousands in shares of Raytheon, a top defense contractor, Insider reported. The Raytheon purchase was triggered accidentally, according to the lawmaker’s office.
“Due to a miscommunication, his financial advisers purchased some stock on his behalf,” a spokeswoman for Blumenauer told Insider at the time. “When this was reported to him, he immediately ordered it sold (at a loss) and gave unequivocal direction that he should not hold any individual stock.”
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Blumenauer was also included in a New York Times report in September detailing 97 members of Congress who traded stocks while they sat on committees overseeing those companies. Kirkpatrick traded bonds and stocks in multiple healthcare companies, including UnitedHealth and CVS, even though the lawmaker, through his Ways and Means Committee member role, has jurisdiction over Medicare.
Blumenauer’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Kirkpatrick did not respond.
