Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, faces his first test Wednesday in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Democrats plan to make the Georgia Republican, a leading critic of Obamacare who authored his own conservative alternative to the law in Congress, defend his and Trump's records on entitlement reform and health insurance.
While Trump is in sync with Hill Republicans and Price on the need to repeal and replace Obamacare, he has split with his party on some of the details of reform.
Trump said there will be "insurance for everybody" in a recent Washington Post interview, a promise at odds with Republicans' pledge to provide universal access to health insurance rather than universal coverage.
Trump has also come out against changes to Medicare and Social Security, while Price advocated for entitlement reforms that would impact Medicare and Medicaid. The president-elect has also called for the government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, which Price and other Republicans have opposed.
Price will not shy away from some of these policy differences between his own record and that of the president-elect, according to a transition official, but will acknowledge his new role within the administration will be to support Trump's plans. He will not tout his own Obamacare replacement proposal, the official said.
Asked how Price plans to answer questions about Trump's promises about health insurance, the official said, "If confirmed, there will be a discussion about how you take those statements and craft them as policy."
Price will also face questions from Democrats concerned about his history of health-related stock trades while working on health care issues in Congress.
Democrats have called for the hearing to be pushed back following a CNN report that Price bought stock in a medical technology company days before introducing a bill that could have helped the company. They plan to press Price on the topic in the hearing.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and others have also called for an independent ethics investigation of Price's trading activity in health-related stocks while working on health care issues in Congress.
"This isn't just a couple of questionable trades, but rather a clear and troubling pattern of Congressman Price trading stock and using his office to benefit the companies in which he is investing," Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Price is preparing to defend his trading activity. The presidential transition team said in a statement the trade in question of Zimmer Biomet stock was conducted by a broker, and not Price, and blasted CNN's report as "junk reporting."
Wednesday's hearing won't be Price's last appearance on Capitol Hill. He'll testify before the Senate Finance Committee next Tuesday for his official confirmation hearing. (That committee will vote to recommend his confirmation to the full Senate.)
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2jJzdaq
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