Chuck Schumer calls for ethics office investigation of Tom Price over potential stock conflicts

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (U.S. Gov't photo)

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and other Senate Democrats are calling for the House Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Rep. Tom Price, Donald Trump's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, to determine whether he broke insider trading laws or had a conflict of interest in holding healthcare stocks.

Schumer said the investigation needed to be done before confirmation hearings are held.

Price has reportedly traded more than $300,000 in shares of stocks in roughly 40 healthcare pharmaceutical companies while pushing for legislation at the federal level that could potentially impact the stock prices, Schumer said, citing a report in the Wall Street Journal.

"President-elect Trump's pick for HHS traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in health-related stocks," he said during a press conference Thursday morning. "While a senior member of Congress, he advocated and voted for federal legislation that could impact those very companies stock prices."

[Also: Democrats likely to pose strong opposition to Price nomination]

Price, an orthopedic surgeon, had access to information and influence on healthcare issues as chairman of the House Budget Committee and as a member of Ways and Means and the Republican healthcare caucus, Schumer said.

"He didn't simply vote on healthcare bills when they came to the House floor, he championed them," Schumer said.

Price sponsored nine and co-sponsored 35 healthcare-related bills in the House, Schumer said, quoting from the WSJ.

Schumer questioned recent passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, legislation which would speed up FDA approval of new drugs.

The group Public Citizen, which has also called for the ethics office investigation, asked whether Price could benefit from passage of the Cures Act through healthcare stocks he owns, one of which has doubled in value, Schumer said.

"Extensive stock trading activity in industries that Price and (Rep. Chris Collins, R-New York)  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."

The Stock Act prohibits insider trading by members of Congress, Schumer said during the news conference also attended by Sens. Patty Murray, D- Washington, and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon.

[Also: 5 ways Tom Price can quickly alter healthcare policy]

"Bottom line: Congressman Price had the influence and was actively involved in pushing healthcare policies while simultaneously making dozens of trades in companies that would be impacted by those policies. He did this repeatedly and in such large numbers he's likely to have made tens of thousands of dollars on one of these trades alone," Schumer said.

Earlier this week, House Republicans voted to curtail the power of the House Office of Congressional Ethics, which was set up in 2008 to investigate misconduct, but the measure did not move forward after an outcry from Democrats and a critical tweet from President-elect Donald Trump.

"If House republicans had had their way Monday, we wouldn't have been allowed to do this," Schumer said.

Earlier, Schumer criticized the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying it would disrupt the entire healthcare system.

"Republicans are plotting and will soon be executing a full-scale assault on the three pillars that support the American health-care system: the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. The Republican plan to cut health care wouldn't make America great again, it would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care," Schumer said, according to CNBC.

Trump responded by Tweet Thursday morning saying, "The Democrats, lead (sic) by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in."

Earlier Wednesday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan emphasized that Republicans would create an "orderly transition" between the Affordable Care Act and the alternative, so as to not "pull out the rug from anybody," according to CNBC.