Tom Price is Exhibit A for congressional ethics reform - WaPo Editorial Board

By Editorial Board January 24 at 7:37 PM

REP. TOM PRICE (R-Ga.), President Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, is a walking, talking example of the ways in which congressional ethics requirements are too lax.

While in Congress, Mr. Price traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in health-care-related stocks. In at least one case, a trade coincided with legislative efforts from Mr. Price that, if successful, would have affected the company he owned a piece of. In another case, the congressman was one of a select group of investors offered a private stock-purchasing deal in an Australian biotechnology company. Making the picture only more unattractive, Mr. Price apparently learned about the company from another House member, Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was on the firm’s board.

When questioned about this unsavory history at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Price mostly restated that he followed applicable House ethics rules and disclosed the purchase and sale of health-care-related stocks while he was a leading figure in crafting health-care policy in Congress. This response only underlines the point that congressional ethics rules are inadequate and that Mr. Price should have known better.

Aside from pointing out that he did not violate House standards, Mr. Price has also claimed that he relinquished management of his stock portfolio, leaving trading decisions to a professional broker. Yet Mr. Price did not create a truly blind trust; he eventually learned what his financial interests were. Mr. Price also admits he pursued the private stock deal in Mr. Collins’s company of his own volition.

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