Dear Secretary Mnuchin:
Prior to his resignation on Sept. 29, 2017, former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Thomas Price committed to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of his travel on private planes for official business. While Price may no longer be Secretary of HHS, he still has the responsibility to follow through on his commitment to repay the American public. Anything less is a clear indication that Price was not in fact sorry for his abuse of taxpayer dollars, but was just sorry that he was caught.
By the latest estimates, Price’s travel on private planes and military jets for official business amounted to over $1 million. On Sept. 28, one day before his resignation, Price released a statement saying, “Today, I will write a personal check to the US Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes. The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes."[1] An HHS spokesperson later confirmed that “Secretary Price will write a personal check to the US Treasury for $51,887.31." This amount was said to reflect the difference between the cost of his seat on private planes and what it would have cost had Price made the same trips in business class on commercial flights.[2] The HHS statement was careful to make clear that Price only planned to reimburse taxpayers for “his seats on charter planes," not for the costs of the chartered planes in their entirety.[3]
Price’s plans to reimburse taxpayers for only a fraction of the costs incurred for his private and military travel is entirely inadequate.[4] At the time of his confirmation, Price’s wealth was estimated at approximately $14 million.[5] In fact, according to his certificate of divestiture and financial disclosures, Price has substantially increased his wealth during his tenure as Secretary by selling off shares of stock, including nearly 500,000 shares of stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics valued at about $320,000 at the time of his divestiture.[6]
To confirm that former Secretary Price does in fact reimburse the federal government, please respond to the following questions and document requests no later than Oct. 17, 2017:
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this critical matter. If you have any questions, or would like to further discuss compliance with this request, please contact Elizabeth Letter of Senator Murray’s HELP Committee staff at 202-224-6403.
