The Senate on Thursday was on track to confirm Georgia U.S. Rep. Tom Price to be secretary of health and human services, a position that would give the Roswell Republican and former orthopedic surgeon vast power to shape health care policy in America.
Lawmakers spent the majority of the day Thursday debating Price’s nomination on the Senate floor in a series of speeches that fell strictly along party lines, ranging from gushy to sharply critical. As of press time, senators were expected to cast their final votes at roughly 1:30 a.m. Friday, but party leaders were in negotiations to potentially alter that timeline.
Despite across-the-board opposition from Democrats, Price’s confirmation is all but certain thanks to a change made to the Senate’s rules in 2013 that lowered the threshold for Cabinet nominees to win approval from 60 to 51. The GOP currently controls 52 seats in the Senate.
If confirmed, Price would have immense power to shape federal regulations that underpin the health care system and draw up a plan for dismantling and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
It has been for that reason in part that Republicans have ignored the waves of criticism Democrats have lapped at Price in the 10 weeks since he was nominated.
“Some of the phony arguments that have been brought up are just pathetic,” said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the chamber’s most senior Republican. Price “probably has as much knowledge about our health care system as anybody on earth.”
Democrats on Thursday lined up to register their dissent against the seven-term congressman for a final time. They rehashed criticism related to his stock trades, which they said toed congressional insider trading laws and were misrepresented in Price’s testimony before two Senate committees.
“Congressman Price’s record is clear: He trades in health care stocks, advocates for policies that help his portfolio and has gotten special access to promising stock deals while serving as a member of Congress,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. “That’s extremely troubling behavior for a nominee who stands to be responsible for the health care of over 100 million Americans.”
Price and Trump’s transition team have maintained that he has done everything aboveboard.
Democrats also homed in on Price’s Obamacare replacement plan, which they said would reserve health care for the wealthy, and proposals to overhaul entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, including raising the eligibility age for the former.
“I know a lot of people that work outside that are on their feet all day, that work with their arms and their shoulders. They can’t work till they’re 67 or 70,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. “It’s immoral.”
Republicans were unmoved. They said Democrats were misrepresenting Price and his finances, and instead, they hammered their colleagues for creating historic delays for the consideration of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
“After all the questions have been asked and all the investigating has taken place, just delaying for delaying sake again serves no useful purpose,” said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican.
Thursday’s partisan sniping was ultimately tame compared with the naked hostility that characterized the Senate’s consideration of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this week. Missing from Price’s debate were high-drama moments on par with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s standoff with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Part of that was due to the fatigue among senators and their aides after more than 48 hours of around-the-clock floor debate on Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Despite that, the vote to confirm Price was expected to be the closest for a health secretary since at least President Gerald Ford’s tenure.
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