The Signal

PRICE OUT AS HHS SECRETARY OVER USE OF PRIVATE PLANES

Trump accepts resignatio­n after days of criticism

- Ray Locker and David Jackson @rlocker12, @djusatoday USA TODAY

President Trump accepted Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s resignatio­n on Friday, the White House said, ending days of presidenti­al criticism over Price’s use of private airplanes.

Price “offered his resignatio­n earlier today and the President accepted,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a brief statement.

Sanders said Trump will designate Don Wright, the deputy assistant secretary for Health and Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, as acting HHS secretary.

In his resignatio­n letter, Price told Trump that he regrets how “recent events have created a distractio­n” from the president’s agenda, including so far unsuccessf­ul efforts to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The announceme­nt came less than two hours after Trump called Price a “very fine man” but once again expressed his irritation about how Price racked up roughly $1 million in flight costs on private and military aircraft since taking office in February.

“I certainly don’t like the optics,” Trump told reporters as he headed for 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’m not 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.

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 of my political career, I’ve fought for the taxpayers. It is clear to me that in this case, I was not sensitive enough to my 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.”

Sanders said the White House has asked HHS to stop approving chartered flights.

“That’s something that we’re certainly looking into,” she said on Thursday.

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 party-line 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 including 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.

Apria sells home medical equipment, including walkers, hospital beds and wound therapy devices.

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.

Between 2012 and February, Price traded shares worth more than $300,000 in about 40 health-related companies, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

At the same time, Price was on the House Ways and Means Committee’s subcommitt­ee on health working on measures that could affect his investment­s.

 ?? JIM WATSON, AFP/GETTY IMAGES ?? Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
JIM WATSON, AFP/GETTY IMAGES Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

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