Democrats Call For Investigation Into Tom Price's Stock Trading

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An organization touting itself as the defender of government from "corporate greed" is joining Senate Democrats in calling on Congress to investigate President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Public Citizen is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics and Securities and Exchange Commission to "look more closely at the stock trading activity" of Rep. Tom Price, a Republican representing Georgia's Sixth Congressional District, and New York Republican Chris Collins.

Citing financial disclosure reports, Public Citizen alleges that since 2009, Price "conducted over 630 trades on the stock market."

Many of these companies, the organization states, are in the pharmaceutical and health care sectors that Price oversees as chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee and as a member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health.

“Extensive stock trading activity in industries that Price and Collins oversee as congressmen, and unusually good timing and financial benefits of those stock trades, raise red flags about the potential use of insider information,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “The public information available falls short of hard evidence of insider trading, but the patterns of trading activity certainly warrant further investigation to determine if it occurred.”

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the new Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, also called on the OCE to investigate the allegations. He was joined by fellow Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Patty Murray of Washington during a press conference.

"Rep Price profited from trades made around the just-passed CURES Act," Schumer tweeted Thursday morning. "House Off of Congressional Ethics must investigate."

Phillip Blando, a spokesperson with the Presidential Transition Team, responded to the allegations by noting "hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington."

Blando noted Schumer should raise the same questions about Dr. Price to Democratic Senators Tom Carper of Delaware, Mark Warner of Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, "who own and have traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical and health insurance company stocks."

"The reality is that Dr. Price’s 20-year career as an orthopedic surgeon and a fiscal conservative make him uniquely qualified to lead HHS," he added. "Today’s stunt is simply an effort to deflect attention away from ObamaCare’s dismal record, including reduced choices and $700 billion in Medicare cuts.”

Image via Rep. Tom Price's Facebook page