Rep. Tom Price, the physician and Georgia Republican tapped for the nation's leading health care job, has long criticized federal spending as excessive. Yet during his years in Congress, he's worked hard to keep federal dollars flowing to his most generous campaign donors.
Price has been a go-to congressman, a review of his records show, for medical special interests hotly sparring with regulators or facing budget cuts. Over the past decade, he has waded into issues related to specific drugs and medical devices, making 38 inquiries with the federal Food and Drug Administration, according to federal records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. He questioned the FDA on his constituents' behalf about matters as minute as a device for fertility treatment and an ingredient in pain creams.
In other cases, he has gone to bat for companies whose executives and employees have generously contributed to his campaigns and political action committees.
"It looks like he's somebody who could throw the store open to a lot of niche special interests," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University who specializes in Congress. "These are things that fly under the radar. If you take a meat ax to Medicare, for example, everybody would know about it. But this kind of stuff is done in the dark of night."
Just a few weeks before Trump tapped Price to lead the Department of Health & Human Services in November, the congressman took the stage at an Atlanta conference for vendors who sell canes, hospital beds and power wheelchairs. Price was the star of the show _ a conference with 5,000 attendees. He spoke to the gathered crowd about the Medicare cuts plaguing the industry and pledged to fight them. The leaders of the Medtrade conference honored Price with an award for his stalwart advocacy and convened a $100-per-person fundraiser in his honor.
Price, 62, a tea party Republican and orthopedic surgeon from the northern Atlanta suburbs, was elected to Congress in 2004 after four terms in the Georgia state Legislature. A third-generation physician, he has said he entered politics on a quest to limit government meddling in health care. He has won significant campaign support over the years from drug firms and physician groups.
Records obtained through a public records request show that Price has taken an interest in his constituents' struggles with the FDA. He hand-signed a letter of concern over the availability of heart valves used in pediatric surgeries in 2005. Four years later, he urged review of a local company's sperm-analysis device. He dubbed the company a "pillar of the community" and said it should be exempted from a clinical trial that would be "impossible to pass." Earlier this year, his staffer pressed the FDA on behalf of a constituent trying to get capsaicin palmitate, a hot-pepper ingredient similar to one available over the counter _ on a list of approved products for specialized pain creams.
A staunch opponent to President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which he says destroys "the sacred doctor-patient relationship," Price has offered several plans, including the Empowering Patients First Act, to repeal and replace the president's health reforms. He favors instead offering patients health savings accounts which they may tap to pay for coverage and care, and tax credits to help people buy health insurance on their own.
Price's office did not respond to interview requests or to detailed written questions about his relationships with contributors or his legislative record. His confirmation hearing could come before President-elect Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said Price is among the top targets for Democrats _ and whose nomination they are trying to derail. The Office of Government Ethics will review Price's financial disclosure report, which contains information about his assets, income and other personal financial information and then advise the Senate Finance Committee on whether Price needs to take steps to avoid conflicts of interest.
In recent weeks, Price has come under criticism for his stock trading in drug companies, including an Australian firm that plans to seek U.S. approval for a promising drug.
Phil Blando, a Trump transition spokesman, said Price has complied with the law and ethics rules. Blando said that Price "takes his obligation to uphold the public trust very seriously" and, if confirmed by the Senate, will work with ethics officials to "ensure his continued compliance and transparency."
