[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S969-S974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF TOM PRICE
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, as the Senate begins to consider the Price
nomination, I wanted to see if I could put a little perspective on the
upcoming debate.
Focusing on bipartisanship has always been important to me. I know
many of my colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, on the
Democratic side, share that view, and in 2009, the nominations of
Democrats Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, and Ron Kirk were all handled in a
bipartisan way.
Issues came up in the vetting process in each of these cases, and
both sides of the committee took the investigation seriously.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case in 2017.
While Congressman Price served on the powerful Ways and Means
Committee, he traded in health care stocks, pushed policies that helped
his portfolio, and got special access to a promising stock deal.
I asked the congressman directly in his Finance Committee hearing
whether he got a special deal. He said that he did not.
I don't think you could be much clearer than the following passage
from a recent report by a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter at the Wall
Street Journal. He wrote: ``Rep. Tom Price got a privileged offer to
buy a biomedical stock at a discount, the company's officials said,
contrary to his congressional testimony this month.''
I want to repeat that because I think it goes right to the heart of
why Finance Committee Democrats feel that the effort to do the vetting
necessary with respect to Congressman Price is not completed.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Wall Street Journal--I will
just read it again--wrote: ``Rep. Tom Price got a privileged offer to
buy a biomedical stock at a discount, the company's officials said,
contrary to his congressional testimony this month.''
So, as I indicated, my Democratic colleagues and I on the committee
said it was important to take more time to look into this issue. But
the majority, when we said we needed to take more time to look at it,
decided to look the other way. That is the first reason for concern on
my side.
The second is how Congressman Price would manage Health and Human
Services, a Department that is really all about people: services for
seniors, services for the poor, for the disabled, for children, and for
families. These are the powerful threads of our safety net. If the
safety net is not there for those who have nowhere else to turn, those
poor will suffer greatly.
Now, the debate on Congressman Price's nomination, in my view, is a
referendum on the future of health care in America. In short, it is a
debate about whether it makes sense for our country to go back to the
dark days when health care worked only for the healthy and the wealthy.
Based on the public record, Medicare is a program Congressman Price
doesn't believe in, and it guarantees services he doesn't believe
seniors should have.
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On the Affordable Care Act, he is the architect of repeal and run. He
wrote the bill himself. He proposed weakening protections for Americans
with preexisting conditions. He would slash Medicaid, shredding the
health care safety net for the least fortunate in our country. He would
take away health care choices for women across the country.
Look for the common thread, Mr. President and colleagues, among the
Price proposals. They take away coverage for our people and make health
care more expensive for individuals or both. That is where Congressman
Price stands when it comes to American health care.
Every Senator who casts a vote for Congressman Price has to stand by
that agenda. Beyond what this means for the future of American health
care, there is the lingering specter of serious legal and ethical
issues.
Tonight and in the hours ahead, this debate is going to tackle each
of those issues and more. As it gets underway, I am going to begin with
Medicare.
In my view, Medicare has been a historic achievement in the way
policy is made in our country. In any debate like this one, I recall my
days when I was the codirector of the Oregon Gray Panthers, when I
worked with seniors who couldn't imagine life without Medicare. But I
will tell you, they told me stories about what it was like for their
grandparents when there wasn't Medicare. There were poor farms--
literally, poor farms--where older people who had served our country in
the Armed Forces very often spent their last days in what amounted to
squalor at these poor farms. Then Medicare came along. For millions of
older people, it was a godsend.
So I want to start my discussion with respect to Medicare with a
comment that Congressman Price made about Medicare in 2009. It is a
quote that speaks volumes about the Price perspective on the Medicare
program that is so treasured by millions of older people.
Congressman Price wrote in 2009: ``Nothing has had a greater negative
effect on the delivery of health care than the federal government's
intrusion into medicine through Medicare.''
I would just say to my friend, the Presiding Officer of the Senate
knows how seniors in Oregon see this. Seniors in Oregon consider
Medicare to be a Godsend, not an intrusion into medicine, as you see
from the Price perspective.
Here is the bottom line, colleagues, as we begin here today: Medicare
is a promise. Medicare is built on a promise of guaranteed benefits--
guaranteed benefits that will be there for you. It is not a voucher. It
is not a slip of paper. It is guaranteed benefits that you can count
on, and it is a promise that Congressman Price has indicated--and it is
a matter of public record--it is a promise that Congressman Price is
more than willing to break.
It is a promise that when you turn 65, you will be guaranteed health
care benefits regardless of your economic station in life or the status
of your health. And the reason Medicare was built with this special
guarantee is straightforward: No American knows how healthy they will
be when they reach age 65. Perhaps you are a marathoner at age 50 and
you develop arthritis or Alzheimer's or cancer a decade and a half
later. Furthermore, no one knows what the economy is going to look like
years ahead or decades ahead into the future. For the less fortunate,
high inflation or a stock market crash could all but wipe out what they
set aside over a lifetime of work. Seniors could find their benefits
exposed to new danger every time there is a financial downturn.
During the recent campaign, the American people heard a standard
Trump pledge: No cuts to Medicare. But when you look at the Price
record and the promise of President Trump, there is a big gap between
the two. When you look at Congressman Price's plan, it is clear that
the Trump pledge was on the ropes the minute he was nominated. In fact,
Congressman Price said that he wants to voucherize Medicare within the
first 6 to 8 months of the administration. Let me repeat that again.
Mr. President, some of these statements that the Congressman has made
are so far-fetched that once in a while I am going to have to repeat
them so that people really get a sense of why we are so concerned.
Congressman Price said he wants to voucherize Medicare within the
first 6 to 8 months of the administration. So what that would mean is
that right out of the chute, the Medicare promise, the promise of
guaranteed benefits--Congressman Price wants to break the promise. In
his budget, the Congressman called for privatizing Medicare and cutting
it by nearly $500 billion.
He also championed legislation to allow a practice called balanced
billing in Medicare. That means seniors could be forced to cover extra
charges above what the program pays for the services they receive in
the doctor's office. Older Americans on fixed incomes would be forced
to pay more for their care.
Colleagues, I believe the Congress has no greater duty than to uphold
the promise of Medicare. In my view, there is no need to mince words:
Privatizing Medicare as Congressman Price has thought to do means an
end--an end to the program-guaranteed health benefit. It would break
the Medicare promise, the promise of guaranteed benefits and services,
and end Medicare as our country knows it.
Now let me turn to the Affordable Care Act. When it comes to the
Affordable Care Act, for years now, there has been a steady drumbeat
coming from my colleagues on the other side: Repeal and replace. Repeal
and replace. I think it has gotten to the point where children sing it
almost as a jingle. Repeal and replace. It has been said so many times.
A government shutdown all built around that slogan--repeal and replace.
At one point, the President-elect said repeal and replace would
happen, in his words, ``simultaneously.'' Shortly before inauguration,
he said they would come within the same hour, and he said Congressman
Price was writing the replacement plan and it was nearly ready to be
unveiled.
But the public heard a different story during Congressman Price's
Finance Committee hearing. At that hearing, our colleague Senator Brown
of Ohio asked: The President said he is working with you on a
replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act, which is nearly finished,
and it will be revealed after your confirmation; is that true?
That was the question posed by Senator Brown to Congressman Price.
The Congressman said: It is true that he said that, yeah--that he
said that, yeah. A moment later he added, ``I have had conversations
with the President about health care, yes.''
So if anybody is waiting for the curtain to rise on the Price
replacement plan, it sounds like you are going to have to wait a while
longer. In fact, the President said this weekend, just this weekend,
Americans might have to wait until next year to see the replacement,
but the uncertainty about what comes next sure hasn't slowed down the
charge of many toward repeal. In fact, the President issued a day one
Executive order instructing the executive branch to roll back the
Affordable Care Act in any way possible.
So I thought given these developments, the fact that Congressman
Price is the architect of a repeal-and-run bill; that the President
immediately on day one tried to set in motion a strategy to gut some of
the key protections in the Affordable Care Act, I thought I ought to
follow this up with Congressman Price during his nomination hearing in
the Finance Committee. So I asked Congressman Price during his finance
nomination hearing whether the Congressman would state that nobody
would be worse off under the President's Executive order--not real
complicated.
There had been all this talk through the campaign about how now
President Trump could do a better job, less money. That was the
constant refrain. I decided, given these ominous developments that I
just described since the beginning of this year, I thought I would just
ask Congressman Price whether anybody would be worse off under the
Executive order. He ducked the question.
I remember asking him about whether people would be worse off with
respect to coverage, and I remembered he said something about how
people would have access to health care. Well, I will tell you, hearing
the word ``access'' rather than ``coverage'' means that
[[Page S971]]
somebody is walking back a commitment to people really getting care.
Everybody pretty much can have access. Sure, if I had the money, I
could get it. It is about coverage. So we asked Congressman Price
whether people would be worse off and he ducked the question.
So then I asked if he would commit that no one would lose coverage,
and he ducked once more.
Then I asked if he would commit to holding off on implementing the
Executive order until a replacement plan was enacted. He ducked.
So the Congressman was given an opportunity to, in effect, say that
he would honor what the American people were told by President Trump in
the campaign; that the two would be hand in hand, the replacement and
repeal would go hand in hand, but he had the chance to say that at the
nomination hearing and he ducked and ducked and he ducked some more.
Americans are still being told that the Affordable Care Act is the
problem and it has to be repealed. It looks to me that what Republicans
have on offer now isn't repeal and replace at all. It is what I have
been calling it since last year, repeal and run, and the architect of
repeal and run is Congressman Price. In fact, he wrote the bill. He
wrote the bill that would have gutted the ACA the last time around.
Under the Price plan, 18 million Americans would lose their health
insurance in less than 2 years. By 2026, it would be 32 million who
would lose coverage. Today 26 million Americans are uninsured. In a
decade it would be 59 million. Working Americans would make up four out
of every five people who lose their coverage. These are folks
struggling to climb the economic ladder. No-cost contraceptive coverage
for millions of women would be gone. We would have hundreds of
thousands of women losing access to care almost immediately just by the
defunding of Planned Parenthood. Hundreds of thousands more would lose
their choice to see the doctors they trust. Just think about that.
Legislation that is going to take away from American women the chance
to see the doctor of their choosing, the doctor they trust. I don't
know anybody in the last election who thought they were voting to see
women lose the choice of the doctor they trust.
Under the Price plan, premiums jumped by hundreds of dollars a year
as the individual market for health insurance collapses. Health care
costs skyrocket. It is a gut punt to all, even those who get their
health insurance at work because what it would do is, in effect, it
would shrink--it would shrink the health care market in a way that
there would be many more people who are seriously ill and had great
expenses, and when you try to pass those on, that would mean people in
the marketplace and those who had health insurance from their employer
would see increases.
Another issue in the Price plan that ought to set off any alarm
bells, in my view, is what Congressman Price has proposed for those
with preexisting health care conditions. This is especially important
in my view. When I proposed my own health plan, eight Democrats, eight
Republicans, I was especially pleased that Senators on both sides of
the aisle understood that making sure that insurance companies could
not knock the stuffing out of people with a preexisting condition any
longer was central to reform. Because when you allow discrimination
against those with a preexisting condition, what you are essentially
saying is health care in America is going to be for the healthy and
wealthy. If you are healthy, no problem with a preexisting condition.
If you are wealthy, again, no problem.
So right at the heart of the Affordable Care Act is a guarantee that
insurance companies cannot discriminate against Americans with
preexisting conditions. Frankly, I was very pleased to see that because
as I indicated, 16 Senators--8 Democrats and 8 Republicans--on our bill
said that was right at the heart of what they wanted in health care
reform. So the ACA--the Affordable Care Act--said, No denying coverage
to pregnant women, no denying coverage to cancer patients, no denying
coverage to kids with autism. Under the Affordable Care Act, that is
the law of the land. It protects every single American. No American
under the Affordable Care Act should have to feel, when they go to bed
at night, that they are going to get hammered as in the old days
because they have a preexisting condition.
Now, Congressman Price, once again turning to the public record--it
is all in the public record here. Congressman Price doesn't believe the
American people should have the protection of that kind of real ban
against discrimination for a preexisting condition. In fact, he was
quoted in 2012 saying that it was, in his words, ``a terrible idea.''
So he, like the law, changed, and his way to change a law that
guarantees universal protection is to get rid of the guarantee that you
aren't going to get discriminated against if you have a preexisting
condition.
Our colleague, Senator Nelson of Florida, asked Congressman Price
about the issue of making sure those with preexisting conditions don't
get discriminated against when the Finance Committee held their
nomination hearing. Once again, Congressman Price ducked, bobbed, and
weaved. Senator Nelson asked if the Congressman thought that the
proposal to continue the ban on discriminating against people with a
preexisting condition is a terrible idea. Here is what Congressman
Price said: ``What I have always said about preexisting conditions is
that nobody, in a system that pays attention to patients, nobody ought
to be priced out of the market for having a bad diagnosis. Nobody.''
Now, that probably is a pretty good sound bite. It is a good sound
bite if you are trying to duck a question, but it is not a real answer
to what Congressman Price was asked by Senator Nelson. And if you
examine Congressman Price's own proposal, when it comes to actually
protecting people with a preexisting condition from discrimination, you
can see why Congressman Price isn't very interested in giving a
straight answer.
I am going to turn now to one of the Congressman's bills. It is
ironically called ``Empowering Patients First.'' Instead of a ban on
discrimination against those with preexisting conditions, the Price
bill opened up loopholes to benefit insurance companies. The Price plan
hinged on something called continuous coverage, and Americans are going
to probably hear a fair amount about that in the months ahead.
The Price plan said that insurance companies had the right to inspect
your recent past when you applied for coverage to the private market.
If they found gaps when you went without insurance, they could deny
coverage for your preexisting condition for up to a year and a half, or
they could hike your premiums by 50 percent. In short, under the Price
plan, insurance companies could take your money and skip out on
covering the health care that you actually need.
Short summary of the Price health provision there: Worse health care,
higher costs.
Now let's think about what this would mean for a cancer patient who
suffers a job loss: Up to 18 months without coverage for cancer
treatment they need that could be the difference between life and
death. Congressman Price's bill didn't allow any special exceptions for
certain gaps in coverage. No matter why you lost your insurance--maybe
a layoff, maybe your spouse passed, quitting your job to start a
business or go back to school--insurance companies with the Price plan
again would be allowed to discriminate. And Congressman Price's bill
didn't create any safeguards for particular patients with life-
threatening illnesses. No matter what kind of preexisting condition you
have, you would be at risk of losing access to care. And going by the
practices those companies followed before the Affordable Care Act, more
than 130 million Americans under age 65 may have a preexisting
condition.
Now, it is correct that Republicans may not decide to go ahead with
Congressman Price's bill as the final measure on replacement. But make
no mistake about it: If confirmed, Congressman Price will be the
captain of the Trump administration's health team. His proposals
matter. And his approach is one that is followed by just about every
other Republican who has put forward a plan of their own.
Colleagues, I think it would be an enormous mistake for this Senate--
for
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our country--to turn back the clock and go back to the days when health
care was for the healthy and wealthy. I don't think there ought to be a
debate about the need for real, truly strong protection for our people
against discrimination for those with a preexisting condition.
The Affordable Care Act locked it in to black letter law. It set a
new standard: Nobody in America is going to be denied insurance due to
a preexisting condition. In my view, it would be unconscionable to look
to yesteryear, turn back the clock, and undermine those strong
protections for the millions and millions of Americans who suffer from
those preexisting health conditions. That, as a matter of public
record, is what Congressman Price's proposal would do.
I want to turn now to his ideas with respect to Medicaid. This, in my
view, is an especially important program, and a part of it that is
usually missed is the nursing home benefit for seniors. Back when I was
the director of the Oregon Gray Panthers and I ran the legal aid office
for the elderly, I saw in particular what Medicaid meant for seniors
who needed nursing home care.
Medicaid now covers costs for two-thirds of the seniors in nursing
homes. And I think we ought to think about who these people are because
these are people in Colorado, in Oregon, and across the country, who
worked hard. They always played by the rules. They put their kids
through school. They were part of their communities. They saved, they
scrimped, they didn't go on an extra vacation; maybe they were thinking
about buying a boat, but they didn't do any of that. They didn't do any
of that because they wanted to save and make sure their spouse could
have a dignified retirement, that they could put their kids through
school, and they did everything right. So they saved and they saved and
they saved.
But the fact is, it costs a lot to be a senior in America today. So
perhaps they spent down all those savings, and their kids--the kids
they love so much--aren't doing that well economically, so it is hard
for the kids to help out with long-term care.
Without Medicaid--and particularly the nursing home benefit--seniors,
65 percent of whom depend on the program for nursing homes, wouldn't be
able to have a dignified retirement.
So that nursing home benefit that is paid for by Medicaid is also one
that Congressman Price has proposed slashing. He does that by cutting
$2 trillion out of Medicaid over the course of two stages. First,
Congressman Price repeals the expansion of Medicaid created under the
Affordable Care Act. This means that more than 11 million Americans
lose their coverage. And it is a plan that even Republican Governors
are speaking out against. John Kasich of Ohio--I think he would
probably tell you he is not anybody's idea of a bleeding heart
liberal--said recently: ``So if all of a sudden that goes away, what do
we tell those 700,000 people? We are closed? Can't do that.''
But that is exactly what Congressman Price's plan is going to end up
doing. It is going to end up telling those 700,000 Ohioans, along with
millions of people across the country in Oregon, and across the land--
and that is because he is pushing to take away their coverage and
hasn't offered any real alternative that would preserve their access to
care.
So for all of those seniors--the ones who worked hard and saved and
did everything right--we all know them; perhaps they are the widower
down at the end of the block--there is not going to be a way to pay for
their health care, and they are not going to be able to have a
dignified retirement, in spite of the fact they did everything all
their life to plan and save.
Congressman Price's second Medicaid cut turns the program into a
block grant and introduces a cap approach. That slashes another 30
percent of its funding and sets it up to be squeezed even more down the
road.
Now, Medicaid goes a lot further in terms of taking on some of the
biggest health care challenges in America. I cited the nursing home
benefit because that is one that I dealt with again and again when I
was director of the Gray Panthers. But the fact is that the program is
helping communities across the country take on a whole host of health
care challenges. The opioid epidemic is one example.
Now, we know that opioid addiction has hit American communities like
a wrecking ball. More than a million people struggle with substance
abuse, and they would lose access to care if the Price plan to repeal
Medicaid expansion goes through. And further cuts to Medicaid would
make the problem even worse, and it wouldn't just be for adults.
Tens of thousands of babies are born with a dependency to drugs each
year. It is largely a product of the opioid crisis. My view is that
number can only rise under Congressman Price's plan to cut Medicaid, a
key source of primary care, prenatal care, and substance abuse
treatment for pregnant women.
Medicaid is also the biggest source of funding for community and
home-based care for those vulnerable Americans with serious
disabilities. It is a huge source of AIDS treatment in America,
particularly with the Affordable Care Act expansion.
All in all, 74 million Americans rely on Medicaid, and they are
certainly not among the most fortunate. Half of them are kids,
including millions with special needs. The program covers nearly half
of all births and millions of Americans with disabilities.
I want to come back again to the faces of these people because I am
not sure, when people hear the word ``Medicaid,'' what they see. I
mention that it is so many seniors who, after planning, saving, and
scrimping, need the program for nursing home care. It covers people who
toil through hard work, even multiple jobs, bringing home just enough
to keep them out of poverty. For many, signing up for the Medicaid
Program brought an end to the years when they had to choose between
visiting the doctor and putting food on the table. Medicaid is their
health care safety net. Make no mistake about it; Congressman Price's
proposals leave that safety net in tatters. There isn't any other
backstop for those vulnerable Americans. From small, tiny children to
seniors who depend on it for nursing home care, there is no other
backstop if their access to health care through Medicaid goes away.
One of the arguments made by advocates of block grants and caps is
that States would have flexibility, and they point to a section of the
Affordable Care Act I wrote to support their case. I believe they are
talking about what is called section 1332. There is a big difference
between what I wrote in the Affordable Care Act and what block grants
would do. We had a number of Senators on both sides of the aisle who
were interested in this issue. What I wrote is this: With that
flexibility, the Affordable Care Act lets States do better by their
people. The Price plan to block grant and cap Medicaid costs lets
States do worse.
Slashing Medicaid also hits State budgets extraordinarily hard. That
is a big reason why Governors across the country have been skeptical--
even Republican Governors, like John Kasich and Rick Snyder of
Michigan. Today, Medicaid comes with an open-ended kind of feature.
Federal funding for the program doesn't tick down to zero. Nobody gets
cut off. If you are working in America and are eligible for Medicaid,
you don't have to worry about being locked out of the doctor's office
if the program goes into the red. Block granting and capping the
program changes that. States get a chunk of money each year. There is a
big risk that money runs out, especially during times of economic
downturn. That is when Medicaid is needed most, at times when working
Americans have the most trouble walking the economic tightrope.
This is in addition to the undeniable, routine demands on the
program: an aging baby-boomer population that will be in increasing
need of nursing home and home-based care, public health emergencies
like the Zika virus that can come without warning, natural disasters
like Hurricane Katrina or the Flint water crisis that devastate
communities, new high-priced drugs that can be cures but come with a
steep price.
The reality is if a State's block grant runs out, that raises
questions that ought to be alarming to all who care about vulnerable
Americans having access to the care they need.
What happens if seniors lose their nursing home benefits in the
middle of the year? Where would they go? Would patients in substance
abuse treatment
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lose access to care? If a State's Medicaid funding dries up midway
through the fiscal year, who would pay for a birth? Would the parents
of a newborn child have to bear the entire cost when they are on a
modest income, working hard, and a hospital bill could reach tens of
thousands of dollars?
When it comes time to pitch this very extreme health care agenda to
the American people, Congressman Price is very articulate and sticks
closely to well-rehearsed language. That is because the Price agenda
would strip tens of millions of Americans of their insurance coverage
and force people to pay much higher costs for much lesser care. It
isn't going to go over very well when people really understand what is
at stake.
One of the priorities Congressman Price talks about most frequently
is access--always saying that his vision is Americans are going to have
access to care. That is one very hollow theory. Access to health care
doesn't mean a lot if you can't afford the cost. So when Americans hear
the Price plan that people will have access, rather than coverage, pay
attention. Pay attention, because if you have coverage today, and he is
going to promise you access in the future, chances are you are going
into the hole and you had better figure out how you are going to pay
for it.
The Congressman talks about flexibility for patients. But under
Congressman Price's plans that wipe out consumer protections and
minimum standards for coverage, it is insurance companies that get the
most flexibility.
The Congressman likes to talk about using metrics to measure health
care. It is very hard to follow what this metrics approach is all
about. When his proposals are challenged using facts and figures,
including those that come from our nonpartisan scorekeepers at the
Congressional Budget Office, he disagrees or he dodges. During his
hearing, he just disagreed with the Congressional Budget Office when I
asked him about some of his funding cuts that would deprive women of
access to preventive care. He objects to even the simplest of
measures--how much funding his proposals cut from our health care
programs--as calculated by the nonpartisan experts. In my view, you
can't run from the metrics when they don't tell you what you want to
hear.
Finally, the Congressman and many others say patients should be at
the center of care. Now, I want it understood, I don't see how anybody
could dispute that idea. Of course patients should be at the center of
care. But when I look at the Price proposals, I don't see the patient
at the center of health care. I see money and I see special interests
at the center of health care.
The Price plan tells vulnerable Americans that their health care will
only go as far as their bank accounts are going to take them. The well-
to-do may be able to manage just fine under the Price proposals and the
costs they push onto patients, but I am absolutely certain that
millions of working Americans won't be able to do it.
I am going to wrap up talking about several glaring ethical issues
with respect to Congressman Price. I will begin with the Congressman's
significant investments in an Australian biomedical company. A lot of
information about those investments has come into view over the course
of months of investigation and reporting. What the facts show is that
in 2016, the Congressman was part of an exclusive deal to buy stock at
a discounted price--a deal called a ``private placement.'' On multiple
occasions he was given opportunities to come clean and explain his
participation in the special stock sale. He never has. Now, the
majority on the Finance Committee has cut off the vetting process
before getting all the facts or having the Congressman correct the
record. So I am going to take a moment tonight to lay out the facts.
It is well known that Congressman Price learned about the company
from a House colleague, Congressman Chris Collins. But Chris Collins
isn't exactly a casual observer of the Australian business pages. He is
Innate's--the company's--largest shareholder and a member of its board.
Many of the company's other major shareholders are people in
Congressman Collins' orbit, family members and chief of staff and
others that he is close to. After learning about the company from his
colleague, Congressman Price made his first purchase of the company's
stock in 2015. He bought 61,000 shares.
Now let's fast forward to August 2016. The Congressman bought another
400,000 shares of Innate as part of a private stock sale for U.S.
investors. When the private sale took place, Innate's shares were
trading on the Australian stock exchange for the equivalent of 31
American cents, but participants in this private sale got the shares at
a steep discount. That discount meant that Congressman Price paid tens
of thousands of dollars less than a typical investor would have paid on
the open market.
With respect to that purchase, the record remains unclear. It does
come down to two issues: how he came to participate in the private
placement, and whether he got special access that other investors
didn't have. On those issues, Congressman Price tells one story;
company officials, Congressman Collins, and public documents tell
another.
First I am going to examine how Congressman Price came to participate
in this private deal. As he tells it, he decided to make that purchase
based on his own research into the company. But the Wall Street Journal
and a little common sense say otherwise. I will read from a January 30
report.
Mr. Price got in on the discounted sale after Mr. Collins
filled him in on the company's drug trial, according to Mr.
Collins. . . . Mr. Collins said he told Mr. Price of the
additional private placement. He said Mr. Price asked if he
could participate in it. ``Could you have someone send me the
documents?''
Mr. Collins recalled Mr. Price asking him.
It paints a pretty clear picture. Congressman Price got information
from his colleague, the company's top shareholder, and he got an
invitation to a special deal. The claim that his conversations with
Congressman Collins had no effect on Congressman Price's decision to
invest just does not pass muster.
So I will turn to the second point--whether or not the deal was
available to all company shareholders. Congressman Price insists it
was. Here is the exchange he and I had during his nomination hearing in
the Finance Committee.
I said: ``You purchased stock in an Australian company through
private offerings at discounts not available to the public.''
Congressman Price responded: ``Well, if I may, those--they were
available to every single individual that was an investor at the
time.''
But that is not what Innate management--including the CEO--told the
Wall Street Journal. According to the Wall Street Journal's report,
Congressman Price was one of six special American investors in a
category called ``friends and family.'' I will read a passage from the
story.
The cabinet nominee [Mr. Price] was one of fewer than 20
U.S. investors who were invited last year to buy discounted
shares of the company--an opportunity that, for Mr. Price,
arose from an invitation from a company director and a fellow
congressman.
At Mr. Collins's invitation, Mr. Price in June ordered
shares discounted in the private placement at 18 cents
apiece, and then more in July at 26 cents a share, Mr.
Collins said in an interview. Those orders went through in
August, after board approval. Mr. Price invested between
$50,000 and $100,000, according to his disclosure form . . .
Mr. Wilkinson [the company's CEO] said investors who had
bought in a previous private placement were called to make
friends and family aware of the opportunity. . . . We are
always looking to increase our shareholder base. But those
new parties have to meet the definition of sophisticated
financial investor.
Only six U.S. investors, including Mr. Price, fell into the
friends-and-family category, Mr. Collins [his friend in
Congress] said. About 10 more U.S. investors were offered
discounted shares by the company because they had previously
been invited to partake in private placement offerings.
Furthermore, Congressman Collins and Mr. Wilkinson added more detail.
The discounted stock offer in Innate Immuno, as the company
is known, was made to all shareholders in Australia and New
Zealand--but not in the U.S., according to Mr. Collins and
confirmed in a separate interview with Innate Immuno CEO
Simon Wilkinson.
Bottom line, Congressman Price got in as a special guest, a friends
and family guest of Congressman Collins. What he told the committee--
that the
[[Page S974]]
deal was open to shareholders--was dead wrong. I am going to repeat
this quote from the Wall Street Journal. This was part of a report that
was authored by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. This is what he
wrote in the Wall Street Journal: ``Rep. Tom Price got a privileged
offer to buy a biomedical stock at a discount, the company's officials
said, contrary to his congressional testimony this month.''
The stock deals I outlined are of very great significance. They
aren't the only ethical issue at hand. Congressman Price introduced
legislation that would lower the tax bills of three major
pharmaceutical companies in which he owns significant amounts of stock.
He invested $15,000 in a medical equipment company and then introduced
legislation to increase the amount Medicare pays for that type of
equipment. Parts of his bill went on to become law.
Then there is his investment in a company called Zimmer Biomet. In
2015, Medicare was preparing a new pricing model that would change the
way the program paid for hip and knee replacements. Instead of paying
for each individual service, Medicare said it would try to make its
payments more efficient by bundling the costs together in one lump sum.
The new system, however, had the potential to affect the revenues of
Zimmer Biomet.
On March 17, 2016, a few weeks before the government's model--that
is, the CMS model was set to go into effect--Congressman Price bought
thousands of dollars' worth of Zimmer Biomet stock through his
brokerage account. On March 23, 2016, less than a week later, he
introduced H.R. 4848, the HIP Act, which would have delayed the
implementation of CMS regulations for Medicare coverage of joint
replacements. He was the lead Republican sponsor of the bill.
Bottom line, Congressman Price introduced legislation that certainly
had the potential to add to his personal fortune. Congressman Price has
argued that he didn't purchase this stock and others; his broker was
making the deal. But at the very least, he would have known about the
deals within days when he filed his periodic transaction reports with
the House.
On August 15, 2016, not only did Congressman Price file a report that
he had purchased Zimmer Biomet along with dozens of other stocks, he
initialed the entry for Zimmer Biomet in order to correct a mistake on
the document.
Wrapping up, I want to go back to the fact that when Congressman
Price came before the Finance Committee, he didn't give us the whole
story. In effect, I think the Finance Committee regrettably has an
ethical double standard now. Look at the nominations of Tom Daschle,
Tim Geithner, and Ron Kirk at the outset of the Obama administration.
That vetting was vigorous. It was bipartisan. We looked over every
stone and peered around every corner. Now, when a glaring issue comes
up that undeniably deserves investigation, the party in power is
shutting down the vetting process and moving toward confirmation. I
think this is sending a dangerous message to nominees in the future.
I will close by way of saying this is a nominee with an extreme
agenda. His proposals strip tens of millions of Americans of their
health care coverage. His proposals would put Americans with
preexisting conditions in danger of losing coverage through the care
they need. It would unravel the Medicare promise, the guarantee of
secured benefits of vital importance to millions of American seniors.
When it comes to ethics, as I have described, Congressman Price falls
well short of the standard the American people expect nominees to meet.
I will not support his nomination. I urge my colleagues to join me in
opposition.
I yield the floor.
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