Rep. Tom Price, popular vote loser Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has a little bit of an ethics problem in his background: the bunch of money he made trading in medical companies' stocks while he was in Congress writing and voting on legislation that could affect those companies. And their stock prices. Senate Democrats want to know a lot more about that before the Senate even holds hearings on his nomination.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, asked for an investigation of Price by the Congressional ethics office. "We don't know if he broke the law, but there are certainly enough, serious questions to warrant an investigation before any hearing is held on Congressman Price to become secretary of HHS," Schumer said at a news conference on Capitol Hill Thursday morning. […]
Schumer, flanked by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, are calling for Price's confirmation hearing to be postponed until the investigation is complete, a process that could take months.
Murray, a member of the Health, Education and Labor Committee, which holds hearings on Price's nomination, met with Price on Wednesday. She wouldn't detail how he responded her questions about his stock market activity but said it reinforced her belief that an investigation is necessary.
"It's part of why I believe so strongly today this needs a serious investigation by the OCE," Murray said.
As of now, the hearing is tentatively scheduled for January 18. Since the Office of Congressional Ethics still exists, thanks to a public revolt against Republicans trying to kill it, investigating Price seems like a really good thing for it to be doing.