Why I trust Tom Price for HHS secretary

I was a wide-eyed Capitol Hill freshman when I first met President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), six years ago.

He was the chair of the influential Republican Policy Committee that would be tasked with helping to steer the agenda for our new House majority and I was the committee’s freshman class delegate. Given that he was a doctor and I was a nurse, I figured we would either bond over our shared healthcare experiences or find ourselves at odds in no time at all.

{mosads}Fortunately, my experience was entirely positive. Congressman Price became a mentor to me, guiding me through the finer details of bill texts and, more than once, through the maze of tunnels that is the U.S. Capitol Complex – the bane of every freshman member of Congress’s existence.

Shortly after being elected to my post on the Republican Policy Committee, I also joined the GOP Doctors Caucus, where I would find myself crossing paths with Congressman Price again.

As a caucus composed entirely of medical providers, we had deep and substantive discussions on healthcare. It was in those meetings that I learned Congressman Price was, like me, a true policy wonk. His nearly twenty years in private practice as an orthopedic surgeon gave him a real-world perspective on health policy that informed his work throughout his time in Congress – and that he will take with him as our next secretary of HHS. 

Perhaps my most telling experiences with Congressman Price, however, were in the House Budget Committee – where I have also served with him for the past six years, most recently under his chairmanship.

Budget debates can be rancorous and are often partisan because, after all, budgets are a statement of our values and our two parties’ values reveal important differences. Nonetheless, I saw Congressman Price consistently work in good faith with members of both parties; always showing fairness and courtesy to the other side.

Even former ranking member of the Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) lauded Congressman Price “for conducting the business of the Budget Committee in a professional manner” – high praise by today’s standards for relations between opposing parties in Congress.

As chairman, Congressman Price did his homework. I watched with pride at the unveiling of our Fiscal Year 2016 budget as he took questions from a crowd of reporters. He was unflappable because he knew the material inside and out. He certainly didn’t make my job any easier by leaving such big shoes to fill, but he set an important standard for his successors to follow.

Like just about all of President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Congressman Price has been subject to some harsh attacks from Washington types who have never met him and whose criticisms are more about an election result they still cannot accept than the merits of any individual nominee. That is wrong.

Some have attacked Congressman Price for his defense of the unborn, while others have criticized him for his opposition to ObamaCare as a medical doctor (He is the author of a worthy ObamaCare replacement bill that gained many co-sponsors in the last Congress), but the time to make those arguments has passed. These policies were on the ballot last fall and now we know the result.

The secretary of HHS wields incredible power. I ought to know because I read the ObamaCare law cover to cover and highlighted every use of the phrase “The Secretary shall promulgate … The Secretary shall establish … The Secretary shall award …” Over the last eight years, we have seen what happens when this falls into the wrong hands.

While we work to repeal ObamaCare, Congressman Price will use his authority as secretary of HHS to provide relief from the law wherever possible, and he will put his expertise to use by partnering with Congress on crafting a meaningful, patient-centered replacement.

Despite the permanent political class’s best wishes, Donald Trump will be the duly elected president of the United States as of this Friday. It behooves us all as Americans to ensure that he can quickly fill this critical Cabinet position –  and no one is more uniquely qualified than Congressman Time Price for the role.  

I trust Tom Price for secretary of HHS and now, I’m trusting the Senate to confirm him without delay.

Rep. Diane Black is a registered nurse representing Tennessee’s 6th District. She is interim Chairman of the House Budget Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee.