Who Is Tom Price? Trump To Pick House Budget Committee Chairman For Health Secretary, Reports Say

President-elect Donald Trump will name Chairman of the House Budget Committee Tom Price as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, reports said Monday. The six-term Republican congressman was the chief architect behind a proposal to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The 62-year-old former orthopedic surgeon, if confirmed, will head a 78,000- employee department with an annual budget of over $1 trillion overseeing health programs that insure more than 100 million Americans. His department will also run the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while funding biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health.

During his time at the U.S. House, Price voted against federal funding of abortion and also played a lead role in shaping the GOP’s health policy particularly its response to the Democrats’ Obamacare.

“We think it’s important that Washington not be in charge of health care,” he reportedly said in an interview this summer. “The problem that I have with Obamacare is that its premise is that Washington knows best.”

The Georgia Republican was named the chairman of the House Budget Committee in 2015. He was also the chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 2009 and 2010. A doctor himself, Price had often seen eye-to-eye with the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia.

He introduced a legislation that would help doctors defend themselves against medical malpractice lawsuits in addition to helping them enter private contracts with Medicare beneficiaries.

Price was raised in Michigan and after graduating from the University of Michigan worked as a surgeon for 20 years. His wife, Betty Price, has been a member of the Georgia House of Representatives since July 2015.

Meanwhile, Trump also met with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former CIA director David Petraeus on Monday. The real estate mogul has been working on filling cabinet positions since after his election victory earlier in November.

Trump has so far named Republican Chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff, Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon as chief strategist, billionaire philanthropist Betsy Devos as education secretary, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as United Nations ambassador, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA director, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, former Reagan White House official K.T. McFarland as deputy national security adviser and Donald McGahn as White House counsel.