WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Price's hearing is currently scheduled for Wednesday morning.
"Today, US Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Al Franken (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said allegations that Congressman Tom Price participated in questionable stock trading should be resolved before his nomination hearing to become Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) moves forward," the release stated on Tuesday.
The letter said, "allowing Congressman Price’s nomination to move to a hearing with questions about his ethical qualifications left unanswered would send an early, clear, and deeply troubling signal that the Senate’s critical oversight functions will be given a back seat to the demands of the Trump administration."
Reports have revealed that Price traded more than $300,000 in shares of health companies stocks while introducing legislation that would benefit those companies.
Also on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said in a Twitter message Democrats in the US Congress should stop attacking Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee over a stock trade.
"Regarding Dem[ocrat] attacks on Tom Price: this is a stock trade worth $300," Spicer tweeted. "You couldn't get into a Sen. [Chuck] Schumer fundraiser for that amount."
Earlier on Tuesday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer noted that Price introduced legislation in Congress in March 2016 about medical devices that benefited a company he purchased stock in the week before.
US media reports that an aide to Price claimed that Price had no knowledge of the purchase, which was done by a broker.
