were participating in a private placement offering. it was lower than was available to the general public, correct? i don t know that it was. it was the same price that everybody paid for the private placement offering. well, congressman chris collins, who sits on president-elect trump s transition team, is both an investor and a board member of the company. he was reportedly overhead just last week off the house floor bragging about how he had made people mill on airs from a stock tip. congressman price, in our meeting, you informed me that you made these purchases based on conversations with representative collins. is that correct? no. that is what you said to me in my office. what i believe i said to you was that i learned of the company from congressman collins. what i recall our conversation was that you had a conversation with collins and then decided to purchase the stock. no, that s not correct. that s what i remember hearing you say in my office.
country opposing this nomination, i ask to put in the record. it will be. congressman price, recent press reports about your investments in the australian biotech company innate immunotherapeutics raises some serious questions about your judgment. i want to review the facts. you purchased stock in innate immunotherapeutics, a company working to develop new drugs, on four separate occasions between january 2015 and august 2016. you made the decision to purchase that stock, not a broker, yes or no? that was a decision that i made, yes. you were offered an opportunity to purchase stock at a lower price than was available to the general public, yes or no? the initial purchase in january of 2015 was at the market price. the secondary purchase in june through august, september of 2016 was at a price that was available to individuals who
immunotherapeutics was being negotiated. and again, just days before you were notified to prepare for a final vote on the bill. congressman, do you believe it is appropriate for a senior member of congress actively involved in policy making in the health sector to repeatedly personally invest in a drug company that could benefit from those actions, yes or no? that s not what happened. well, let me just say that i believe it s inappropriate and we need answers to this regarding whether you and congressman collins used your access to non-public information when you bought at prices that were unavailable to the public. i had no access to non-public information. we will go on. congressman price, just last week you and republicans in congress voted to begin ripping apart our health care system which would cause nearly 30 million people to lose their coverage and raise health care costs for families. without telling the american people specifically what you plan to do instead.
very well be a violation of the law. jon meacham, if plays like like schumer is saying, doesn t sound good. your reaction? as we were saying, democrats would like to get some scalp here. if congressman price is that, that would give them something in what is otherwise the most dismal of weeks for them in a dark season. but it s very rare for a nominee to go all the way to the floor and lose. 1989 john tower did. usually make the political choice and pull them beforehand. but interesting test too. i think this is in some ways even more interesting, of trump s tolerance, his capacity to read the political patterns and react to them. or does he stubbornly insist
you did so without a broker. yes or no? no. without a broker? i did not. you told me that you did this it oun your own without the broker. no, i did it through a broker. i directed the broker to purchase the stock, but i did it through a broker. you directed the broker to purchase that stock? that s correct. mr. chairman, those answers really commit me to underscore the need for a full independent investigation. i would like to ask consent to enter the record an article from keizer health news that it notes that congressman price was of r offered a lower stock price for sfis caughted investors. that s an important part of the record. will be included. representative price, if you are confirmed as secretary of health and human services, you will be in charge of our nation s family planning programs and policies.