[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 962-963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NOMINATION OF TOM PRICE

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
my friend, Dr. Tom Price. In a way, I am glad the minority leader 
brought up Representative Price and brought up specific allegations 
that have been made against him so I can hopefully put some light on 
the misperception that those allegations made and, in fact, shine some 
positive light on a great nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human 
Services.
  I have known Tom Price for 30 years of my life. He and his wife Betty 
are dear friends. Their son Robert is the age of one of my sons. He is 
a fine young man. Tom is a leader in our community, a leader in the 
Roswell United Methodist Church, the first-ever elected Republican 
majority leader of the State of Georgia Senate, the chairman of the 
Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, former president 
of the study committee in the House of Representatives, and an all-
around terrific individual who has a litany and liturgy of recommended 
approvals and improvements that have made the United States of America 
legislatively and legally much better.
  Tom is a family man. I mentioned Betty and his son Robert. He is an 
accomplished professional. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He and his wife 
Betty met during their residencies at Grady Memorial Hospital. She is 
an anesthesiologist. Tom is an accomplished orthopedic surgeon.
  Tom is one of those orthopedists who came together with a number of 
other orthopedists to form what is known as Resurgens Orthopaedics, the 
largest orthopedic practice in the Southeastern United States--one of 
the finest anywhere in the country.
  Tom has worked tirelessly in the Republican Party, tirelessly on the 
Democratic-Republican bipartisan agreements that have been made, and 
tirelessly on behalf of his community.
  He is a fine individual and is uniquely qualified to be the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services. This is an agency that will spend $1 
trillion of the taxpayers' money on an annual basis. You want a man who 
has been chairman of the Budget Committee. You want a man who 
understands finances. You want a former legislator who knows how to get 
the job done. Tom Price is that man.
  In fact, I am particularly well qualified to introduce Tom to this 
body and recommend him as Secretary of HHS because he replaced me when 
I left the House when I was elected to the Senate. He has been 
reelected six times. He served 6\1/2\ terms in the House of 
Representatives, and he has an extensive legal background, an extensive 
legislative background, and an accomplished background of conservative 
leadership for the United States of America. Most importantly, he has 
done so on many issues dealing with medicine, and why not? He is an 
expert in medicine.
  I know a little bit about real estate. I authored legislation on real 
estate. That is what you do when you are in a profession and know a 
little about something Congress is looking at. But the allegations made 
by Senator Schumer--and being echoed in some of the media and papers 
around town--are just another example of taking disparate impact.
  I want to talk to you a little about what Senator Schumer was talking 
about. He was talking about the purchase of Zimmer Biomet stock, 26 
shares, worth $2,674. That is what he was talking about. The two 
disparate facts that he put together to make a wrong were this: The 
purchase was made without Tom's knowledge because his account is 
managed by Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. They manage his account. 
They make the decisions about what to buy. Tom doesn't make them. Tom 
found out about it and documented it on April 4, even though the 
purchase was made in March. He didn't even know the purchase had been 
made on his behalf until it was disclosed, which he did as he is 
required to do by the STOCK Act.
  Every single fact brought up by the distinguished minority leader is 
a fact that is a required disclosure of the rules of the U.S. Senate to 
the Ethics Committee under the STOCK Act. So don't make this look like 
some sinister thing, and let's take it at face value. If you take it at 
face value, it was a purchase Tom didn't make; it was made on his 
behalf. It was a purchase we documented that he didn't know about until 
the 4th of April; the purchase was made in March. The purchase did not 
work to his benefit because the decision was not made by him.
  He is like every other Member of the Senate and House who makes 
required disclosures of their activity because of the STOCK Act. Tom 
obeyed the law. Tom did what was right. What was done is right and is 
being made to look wrong only because of appearance but not because of 
fact. That is the wrong way to take on the consideration of any nominee 
of a President of the United States to be a Secretary of any part of 
the Cabinet.
  I reiterate: Who else would be better to oversee $1 trillion in 
spending than Tom Price, chairman of the Budget Committee, former 
member of Ways and Means, an accomplished legislator who put together 
the largest orthopedic practice in Atlanta, GA, and the State of 
Georgia? He is well qualified and eminently qualified. This body should 
overwhelmingly confirm his nomination to be U.S. Secretary of Health 
and Human Services in the United States of America.
  I am proud as his friend, I am proud as a former associate and 
legislator, I am proud as the person he succeeded in the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and I am proud as an American citizen to know that our 
President has picked someone who is eminently qualified, who has an 
impeccable record of success in his legislative jobs, who is a fine 
family man, a member of his church, a disciplined member of his 
political party and, most importantly, a man who loves his country and 
is volunteering to sacrifice his time and his knowledge to make 
America's Department of Health and Human Services better.

[[Page 963]]

  Lastly, there is a little rumor going around that he is not for 
extending Social Security. That is ironic to me. Let me tell you what 
he and I did in November and December. We traveled throughout Georgia 
on behalf of AARP, presenting ways to save Social Security. Day in and 
day out, Tom Price is on the record of the State of Georgia, fighting 
to preserve Social Security for those who have it and for those who 
will get it in the future. So don't take this disparate impact of 
extraneous facts someone put together to try to make a wrong out of a 
right. Instead, look at the record of an impeccable legislator, a 
dedicated family man, a great American, and the next Secretary of 
Health and Human Services of the United States of America, Dr. Tom 
Price.
  I commend him to every Member of this Senate and hope you will 
confirm him when his vote comes before the Senate.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hoeven). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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