Georgia Rep. Tom Price, popular vote loser Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services, faced a second panel of senators Tuesday in the Finance Committee and another round of questions about his stock purchases as a member of Congress, purchases that have all the appearance of insider trading. More details have emerged about the most troublesome purchase of more than $100,000 worth of stock in the Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics in 2016, a purchase he failed to properly disclose.
On a financial disclosure Price provided to the Office of Government Ethics in December, he listed the value of his stake in Innate Immunotherapeutics in the category of "between $15,001 and $50,000." This failed to include his second purchase of stock at a special price that was available to 18 investors they selected, including two members of the company's board. He has since estimated that stake to be worth "between $100,001 and $250,000" at the time he filed his disclosure on Dec. 20. The value of his holding in the little-known Australian company has since increased by more than 100 percent.
Price learned about Innate Immunotherapeutics from Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a member of the firm’s board, in early 2016. On Sept. 1, when the actual price of a share was $0.31, he purchased 400,613 shares at a price of $0.18 each, for an instant profit of $57,080. Based on the current value of Innate Immunotherapeutics stock on the Australian market, the shares Price bought through this private placement are now worth more than $520,000—more than four times their value at the time of the purchase.
Substantially more, as well, than what he claimed in his disclosure a month ago. "Set aside the legal issues," said ranking member of Finance, Democratic Colorado Sen. Ron Wyden. "It is hard to see this as anything but a conflict of interest, and an abuse of positions." Price says that his failure to correctly report the value of his stock is simply a "clerical error." When Wyden asked if he thought it might have been "bad judgement" to conduct this purchase—preferred, private, and limited to a select number of investors—while serving in Congress, Price said "no." Which should be disqualifying in and of itself. He's not even acknowledging it looks bad, much less is unethical.
Other highlights of the hearing were Price disputing that he had ever said protecting the insurance patients with pre-existing conditions was a bad idea, as Wyden pointed out. Price was lying. In fact, he called it a "terrible idea." Price also said in the hearing that he does not support privatizing Medicare, which was news to everyone in the room, since he talked about wanting to do that back in November of last year and in March 2015, and voted for it five times. Price said that he would support the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program not for the usual five years, but for eight. He voted against both reauthorization and/or efforts to expand the program in 2009, 2008, and 2007.
And this was pretty good, too: Price's apparently stunned reaction upon learning that being a woman was a pre-existing condition before Obamacare came along.
None of this is likely to be enough to turn Republican senators against him, and he will almost assuredly be confirmed.