Trump Cabinet Pick Bought Stock in Company Days Before Introducing Bill to Help It

Price Also Received Campaign Contribution From Company His Bill Would Have Helped

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Dept. of Health and Human Services bought stock in a company just days before introducing legislation that would help it. CNN, first to discover and report the news, says Price “last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns.”

Citing House records, CNN reports Congressman Price “bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet,” a $7.5 billion Indiana-based corporation with over 17,000 employees. Days later, Price “introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.”

Not only did Congressman Price introduce legislation that would benefit his stock portfolio, his political campaign coffers also grew.

“After Price offered his bill to provide Zimmer Biomet and other companies relief from the CMS regulation, the company’s political action committee donated to the congressman’s reelection campaign, records show,” says CNN.

In late December The Wall Street Journal reported Price “traded more than $300,000 in shares of health-related companies over the past four years.” The paper also noted that he “bought and sold stock in about 40 health-care, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies since 2012, including a dozen in the current congressional session.” The six-term Georgia congressman “has sponsored nine and co-sponsored 35 health-related bills in the House.” 

The Georgia Republican congressman has a strong desire to repeal and replace Obamacare, and is one of only a handful in Congress who have written bills to do so.

Price, who is known for being a far right conservative, holds extremely anti-gay views. As NCRM reported when he became Donald Trump’s nominee to run HHS, NCRM reported Price has supported the false claim that “promoting” the “homosexual agenda” has a “tremendous medical health impact and economic impact.” He also has said that LGBT equality is “a huge cost-driver to state pensions and other things, many of these areas would significantly alter state balance sheets.”

When the Supreme Court handed down the Obergefell ruling, Price issued a statement calling it “not only a sad day for marriage, but a further judicial destruction of our entire system of checks and balances.”

Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer weighed in:

UPDATE:
The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza just posted this tweet:

 

You can respond directly to Rep. Price by sending your comments to him on Twitter: @RepTomPrice. You can also contact him via his official House website.
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license