Senate Republicans approve Price and Mnuchin nominations after changing the rules to stymie Democrats’ boycott
Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee voted Wednesday to recommend the nominations of Tom Price as Health and Human Services secretary and Steve Mnuchin as Treasury secretary to the full Senate after changing rules to stymie a boycott by Democrats, according to the Associated Press.
The move came after Democrats prevented confirmation votes for both men Tuesday, charging that Price and Mnuchin misled the committee.
That move infuriated Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who called the tactic “pathetic” and Democrats “idiots.”
Committee rules require at least one member from each party to be present for a meeting. But the committee’s Republicans changed the rules Wednesday to allow for confirmation votes, Hatch said.
“We took some unprecedented actions today due to the unprecedented obstruction on the part of our colleagues,” Hatch said..
Democrats have said Mnuchin, a wealthy Wall Street executive, misled the committee in his response to a written question about foreclosures at Pasadena’s OneWest Bank while he ran it from 2009-15.
Democrats pointed to a report Sunday by the Columbus Dispatch that Mnuchin denied that OneWest engaged in so-called robo-signing of mortgage documents.
The paper said its analysis of nearly four dozen foreclosure cases in Ohio’s Franklin County in 2010 showed that the bank “frequently used robo-signers.”
The Dispatch cited a foreclosure involving a mortgage signed by Erica Johnson-Seck, a OneWest vice president who said in a deposition in a 2009 Florida case that she signed an average of 750 documents a week.
Barney Keller, a spokesman for Mnuchin, said Monday that several courts had dismissed cases involving allegations of robo-signing by Johnson-Seck.
“The media is picking on a hardworking bank employee whose reputation has been maligned but whose work has been upheld by numerous courts all around the country in the face of scurrilous and false allegations,” Keller said.
Democrats also have problems with Price, a six-term congressman and former orthopedic surgeon who has distinguished himself in conservative circles for his staunch opposition to the Affordable Care Act and his plans to slash federal healthcare spending.
His nomination has become among Trump’s most controversial, in part because of his hostility to government safety net programs, including Medicaid and Medicare.
Democrats have also been increasingly critical of Price’s extensive trading in healthcare stocks while he has been in Congress, and in some cases while he has pushed legislation that would benefit his portfolio.
Price has denied any wrongdoing.
Also drawing criticism was Price’s purchase of discounted shares in an Australian biotech firm, Innate Immunotherapeutics, which he was offered through a private deal not available to general shareholders.
Price also denied that this was improper, and Senate Republicans have rallied to his side, saying he did not violate any ethics rules.
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