Senate Finance Advances Tom Price HHS Confirmation, Sans Democrats

01 Feb 2017

• By Sue Darcey

An all-Republican Senate Finance panel changed the committee’s rules Feb. 1 and voted 14-0 to advance HHS Secretary nominee Tom Price’s, R-Ga., confirmation to the full Senate, after the panel’s Democrats, led by ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon, boycotted Price’s confirmation markup for a second day due to lingering questions about Price’s investments in Innate Immunotherapeutics stocks, Wyden said.

Senate Finance Committee Republicans voted Feb. 1 to move Rep. Tom Price’s, R-Ga., nomination to become US HHS secretary to the full Senate without a single Democratic panel member in attendance. The 14-0 vote came after the committee suspended its quorum requirement that at least one minority-party member take part in the process.

Earlier in the day, the committee’s Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to...