On the recordFebruary 9, 2017
I rise today to talk for a few minutes about the nomination of our congressional colleague, Congressman Tom Price, also known as Dr. Tom Price, to serve as our next Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. When Senator Tester arrives on the floor, I will yield to him. I know he has reserved time. I will be happy to yield to him when he arrives. But until then, I just want to make a couple of comments, if I could. From the outset, my colleagues--our colleagues and I; not all, but a number of us--have had concerns, in some cases very grave concerns, about many of President Trump's nominees. Having said that, a number of them have gotten overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans. I checked as of sometime yesterday afternoon. There had been seven votes on nominees at that time. I think four of them had gotten overwhelming bipartisan support; three did not. But from the outset, my colleagues and I have had grave concerns about many of President Trump's nominees. But we have a responsibility, I believe, to thoroughly consider every Cabinet nominee on the merits of his or her fitness to serve. To evaluate Congressman Price's nomination, I looked--and a number of us have looked--at his career in the U.S. House of Representative, which I believe spans some six terms, which would be somewhere between 10 and 12 years. We did that in order to learn more about his guiding principles as a legislator. All of us have guiding principles.…





