After battling questions of ethics raised during his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price now faces a fresh round of inquiry regarding his use of taxpayer money to charter private flights as secretary.
News reports revealing Price’s habit of using private jets paid for with government funds during his time at HHS triggered an investigation by the department’s inspector general last week. Since May, Politico reported, Price has taken at least 24 flights on private jets that have cost taxpayers more than $300,000. A follow-up report published Tuesday by Politico revealed some of Price’s trips have blended personal business with government business, such as the time he spent nearly $18,000 to charter a jet for a trip to Nashville that lasted less than six hours, but involved a lunch with his son.
Price’s official visits in Nashville included an hour-long tour of the Dispensary of Hope and a 20-minute speech at the Healthy Tennessee Summit, the latter of which was reportedly organized on a last-minute basis. Between both events, HHS confirmed the secretary dined with his son.
As with other trips the secretary used private options to make, there were much cheaper commercial flights that matched his itinerary available at local airports. According to Politico, Price’s plane left Washington Dulles International Airport at 9:12 a.m. ET and landed in Nashville at 9:44 a.m. CT. American Airlines offered a flight that left Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at 9:05 a.m. ET and arrived in Nashville at 9:39 a.m. CT.
Nevertheless, Price spent $18,000 to fly private for a 5 1/2-hour trip that involved roughly 90 minutes of official business. And that’s just one example.
Price has defended his use of the jets, but also maintained he’s “very, very serious about addressing [the criticism].”
“I don’t think there would be any charter trips until this review is complete. I think that’s appropriate because of the concerns that we’ve heard,” he told Fox News on Saturday.
Obviously there are occassions on which Cabinet members’ demanding schedules may necessitate the use of private travel, but the frequency, comparative costs, and purposes of Price’s flights raise questions that are more than fair, especially given his stated interested in promoting fiscal responsibility.
Ahead of his confirmation hearing early this year, and then again after he was confirmed, questions were also raised about the ethics of Price’s stock activity while he served in the House of Representatives. As the Wall Street Journal reported, “from 2012 through 2016, Dr. Price traded more than $300,000 in shares of about 40 health-related companies while sponsoring and advocating legislation that potentially could affect those companies’ stocks.” And after Kaiser Health News reported ahead of his hearing in January that Price took advantage of discounted stocks offered to “sophisticated investors” by Australian company Innate Immunotherapeutics, he sold his shares for about $320,000 in February.
In April, the Wall Street Journal revealed that sale more than tripled his investment in the company. In the case that Innate Immunotherapeutics is able to sell its drug to a pharmaceutical company, the product will need to be approved by the FDA, which is overseen by Price. With the exception of Innate Immunotherapeutics, Price maintains all of the stock purchases were made by a broker.
Questions surrounding his flights and stocks suggest, but don’t prove, Price has a pattern of flouting ethics to take advantage of his positions in government. While there’s no clear fire just yet, there’s certainly smoke. As a high-profile member of an administration that’s pledged to drain the swamp, Price may have a tough time proving why he shouldn’t be flushed out of the government.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
