Tom Price Resigns as Health and Human Services Secretary

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price resigned today over his use of private planes and military jets to traverse the country at taxpayers’ expense.
 
A late afternoon statement from the White House confirmed Price’s resignation and said he would be replaced by Don J. Wright of Virginia, the deputy assistant secretary for Health and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Wright would become acting Health and Human Services (HHS) director.
 
In his resignation letter, Price said he was stepping down to allow the administration to “move forward without further disruption,” according to CNBC. “I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives,” he wrote.
 
Price came under fire last week after the HHS Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into his use of chartered flights complied with federal travel regulations. “We take this matter very seriously, and when questions arose about potentially inappropriate travel, we immediately began assessing the issue,” read a statement from the office.
 
The New York Times claims Price incurred $400,000 in travel bills for his chartered flights, but Politico estimates his 26 trips to Europe and Africa (on both private flights and military aircraft) cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
 
On Sept. 28, Price offered to reimburse the U.S. government $51,887—the cost of his own seat on the trips—and noted that his private-charter travel had been approved by both legal and HHS officials. But he also said he regretted the “concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars.”
 
“All of my political career I’ve fought for the taxpayers,” Price said. “It is clear to me that in this case, I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer. I know as well as anyone that the American people want to know that their hard-earned dollars are being spent wisely by government officials.”
 
Neither his apology nor his offer to repay the government, however, was enough to save his job and assuage his angry boss.
 
President Donald Trump made no attempt to hide his anger at Price over the last several days, telling reporters at one point on Friday that he would decide within hours whether to fire the HHS secretary. He also repeatedly expressed his disappointment in his cabinet choice.
 
“I was disappointed because I didn’t like it, cosmetically or otherwise. I was disappointed,” the president said as he left the White House for his Bedminster, N.J., golf club. “This is an administration that saves hundreds of millions of dollars renegotiating things. We’re renegotiating trade deals…NAFTA…we’re renegotiating so many different things and making much better deals. I don’t like to see somebody that perhaps there is the perception that it wasn’t right.” 
 
An orthopedic surgeon, Price was confirmed as HHS secretary in February by a 52-47 margin. Before his nomination, Price served six terms as representative of Georgia’s sixth Congressional district and chaired the House Budget Committee in 2015.