Senate panel to vote on Trump’s pick for health secretary

WASHINGTON – Republicans have scheduled a Tuesday vote by the Senate Finance Committee on President Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary.

Trump’s pick is GOP Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, and the Republican-run committee is expected to back Price along party lines. In his new post, Price will help lead the GOP drive to scrap President Barack Obama’s health care law and enact still-uncertain Republican plans to replace it.

Democrats have fought Price’s nomination. They cite his long-running efforts to repeal Obama’s law and reconfigure Medicare and Medicaid. They also accuse him of acquiring health industry stocks and offering legislation that could have helped those firms and of insider trading, which Price has denied.

Republicans back Price. Finance panel Chairman Orrin Hatch is praising Price for “experience, fortitude and judgment.”