Rep. Tom Price's extensive self-enrichment while in Congress has been a deeply delved topic since he was nominated by popular vote loser Donald Trump to head up the Department of Health and Human Services. But here's a new aspect to all those questionable stock buys that smack of insider trading: he lied to Congress about the timing of some of those buys, and how much he invested.
WASHINGTON — President Trump's choice to be the top U.S. health official bought and sold health care company stocks often enough as a member of Congress to warrant probes by both federal securities regulators and the House ethics committee, former government ethics lawyers say.
A USA TODAY analysis of stock trade reports by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., also shows he often misstated the timing of stock purchases or failed to report them altogether. […]
Price also invested in more health care companies that could benefit from legislation he introduced than previously reported. […]
In his Senate confirmation hearings, Price said he personally directed the January 2015 purchases of stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics, He insisted that his broker handled all of his other direct stock holdings and did not consult him on those transactions.
However, in Price's self-reported periodic transaction report filed in February 2015, Price said he was informed of the Innate trades about a month after the transaction took place — even though he directed them himself. This illustrates that Price misstated the timing of two out of three of his most controversial investments.
The record USA Today compiles is damning.
Last May, Price introduced the Patient Access to Durable Medical Equipment Act. That legislation blocked Medicare from changing to reimbursements for durable medical equipment. A week after introducing the legislation, he bought $15,000 in shares in the parent company of another that "sells home medical equipment, including walkers, hospital beds and wound therapy devices." That company, Apria, in turn spent $100,000 in the next two months lobbying for Price's bill. He did a similar thing for another medical device company, McKesson, buying $15,000 in stock in it and then sponsoring another bill that would help it.
That's not even addressing the fact that he "misstated" the timing of these stock buys in his confirmation hearings. Given how recently he bought these stocks, one would think those details would be fresh in his mind, or at least easy to look up. But he didn't—maybe because he figured he wouldn't come under deep enough scrutiny for his lies to be exposed. His ultimate calculation, though, was probably that it didn't matter, because this Republican Senate would confirm any Republican before them. He was right.