Price is latest high- ranking official to leave Trump team
the presidential helicopter Marine One, en route to a weekend stay at his golf club in New Jersey. “I’m not happy, I can tell you that. I’mnot happy.”
Later, Trump was asked if Price offered to resign and responded: “No, but we’ll see what happens later on.”
Price is the latest high- ranking official to leave the Trump administration, joining a list that includes White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist Steve Bannon, press secretary Sean Spicer and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump also dismissed FBI Director James Comey.
The former Georgia congressman is the first Cabinet member to leave the Trump administration; Trump’s first pick for Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, left to replace Priebus as chief of staff.
Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York, who criticized Price for leading efforts to repeal and replace Obama’s health care law, said he hopes the next secretary will reverse that course.
“The mission of the Health and Human Services secretary should be to support Americans’ health care, not take it away,” Schumer said.
Price said in his resignation letter that he wanted “to reform a broken health care system, empower patients, reduce regulatory burdens, ensure global health security, and tackle clinical priorities such as the opioids epidemic, serious mental illness and childhood obesity.”
Politico first revealed that Price billed taxpayers for the more costly flights, instead of flying commercial airlines, which would be cheaper.
Hours after the resignation, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney sent amemo to all federal agencies requiring Kelly’s approval before chartering aircraft. “With few exceptions, the commercial air system used by millions of Americans every day is appropriate, even for very senior officials,” he said.
Those required to fly on military aircraft, like the secretary of Defense, are exempt.
“Beyond the law and formal policy, departments and agencies should recognize that we are public servants. Every penny we spend comes from the taxpayer,” Mulvaney said in an unusually plain- spoken memo. “Put another way, just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.”
On Thursday, Price said he would repay the government about $ 52,000 for his domestic travel on chartered planes. He apologized for taking the flights.
“I regret the concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars,” he said. “All ofmy political career, I’ve fought for the taxpayers. It is clear to me that in this case, I was not sensitive enough tomy concern for the taxpayer.
“I know as well as anyone that the American people want to know that their hard- earned dollars are being spent wisely by government officials.”
A one- time chairman of the Budget Committee, Price is an orthopedic surgeon who entered politics as a member of the Georgia legislature. He was an early and active opponent of the Affordable Care Act.
Even before he was confirmed by a partyline 52- 47 vote in the Senate, Price had stirred controversy for his series of trades in stocks affected by legislation he introduced in Congress.
In February, USA TODAY reported on two separate stock transactions by Price involving companies that would have benefited from the Patient Access to Durable Medical Equipment Act he introduced in May 2016.
Price’s bill reversed cuts in reimbursement to makers of home medical beds and other equipment. He bought $ 15,000 worth of shares in McKesson, which bills itself as the oldest and largest health care company in the world, and distributes drugs, medical supplies and equipment such as beds and lifts for homes.
A week after he introduced the bill, Price purchased up to $ 15,000 worth of shares in Blackstone, which owns the privately held home medical equipment company Apria.
Former government ethics lawyers said Price bought and sold health care company stocks often enough as a member of Congress to warrant probes by both federal securities regulators and the House ethics committee.