Where does a Congress member or Senator go when
they leave the Hill; be it a calculated exit or otherwise? It’s
true they have opulent
post-employment compensation plans but even with a sturdy safety
net many aren’t necessarily ready to trade in their careers or ambitions for leisurely
weekday afternoons on the golf course, senior’s cruises and early bird dinners.
Like many Americans, this transition usually means they either have another gig
lined up if it was a planned departure or they are scrambling to find one if it
came unexpectedly.
For many former
politicians their new endeavor usually
means they end up with a very familiar work commute—right back to Capitol Hill.
Equally comforting and advantageous for both the new employee and their
employer it usually means a lot of time spent speaking with old, familiar
faces—though now it’s from the opposite side of the desk. It certainly doesn’t
hurt that the pay also tends to be much more lucrative. And though they’ll
likely still be referred to by the honorary title of Senator or Congressman or
Congresswoman in mixed company, their new professional title would be lobbyist or consultant.
This transition from elected public servant to well paid influence
peddler is commonly referred to as “Revolving Door Politics” and its ubiquity
and acceptance in the contemporary mechanics of Washington is often cited as
one of the major contributing factors to political/corporate cronyism and the
bastardization of our representative government.
Current participants in revolving door politics would likely argue
that there is nothing inherently unethical about their new careers; they’re
merely earning a living using their experience and expertise to navigate within
the confines of a complicated system. And it certainly isn’t illegal in any way,
they might add. There is one gentleman who has been extremely successful in the
post-Congressional lobby occupation that would likely be the first to offer up
this particular defense of the practice.
Meet former Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin:
Congressman Tauzin, “the Cajun in the Capitol”, began his formal political
career way back in 1972 when he won a seat in the Louisiana State House of
Representatives. He served there until 1980 when a series of fortuitous events
catapulted him to a seat in the US House of Representatives. Eventually, in
2001Tauzin landed the chairman position of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee. This powerful committee has
an exceptionally broad jurisdiction, but one particular area of oversight it’s
charged with is the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry also
happened to be a big campaign contributor to Congressman Tauzin—contributing
over $200,000 throughout his 20+ year congressional career though $91,500 of it came
in 2002, just shortly after he landed the chairmanship.
While chairing this committee, Congressman Tauzin co-sponsored and
steered a rather large bill through the House titled the Medicare
Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act. With
Tauzin’s help, the bill eventually passed through the House (by a razor thin
margin) and the Senate and was signed into law. The bill radically altered
Medicare, turning much of the business of caring for America ’s seniors and disabled
people to private insurance companies. Part of the bill, known as Medicare Part D, mandated
that the Federal government cover a significant portion of prescription drug
costs for beneficiaries under Medicare. It simultaneously dictated that the
Federal Government could not negotiate in any way for lower costs of
prescription drugs for the program as it had been allowed to in other programs
like the Veterans
Health Administration. It also restricted the
Medicare system from purchasing cheaper, imported drugs from other countries
like Canada and Mexico .
So, plainly stated for anyone not fully understanding the implications,
this bill provided the pharmaceutical industry with an absolutely massive
expansion in its customer base—with the deepest pockets in the world picking up
a large portion of the tab—while at the same time guaranteeing they got to
dictate, without protest or the slightest hint of competition, what the prices
would be for these new customers. Calling it a sweetheart of a deal would be a
serious understatement. Whether they said so or not, the heads of the
pharmaceutical industry must have been greatly appreciative of Tauzin’s effort
to steer the bill through to completion.
Two months after the Medicare Modernization Act was signed into law
by President George W. Bush, Tauzin resigned his chairmanship of the Energy and
Commerce Committee and announced that he would not seek reelection for his
House seat. Tauzin had a new gig. Citing a successful battle with cancer and
his new found appreciation for the pharmaceutical industry, it seems that
Congressman Tauzin was called to do even greater work as the head of the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the largest
lobbying entity for the pharmaceutical industry in Washington . The new position came with a
modest salary increase of course. As a congressman, Tauzin had a base salary of
$154,700 in 2003.
His starting salary at PhRMA was $2,000,000. Phenomenal
timing on his part since he probably needed a more reliable way to pay for the lavish 1.1
million dollar Texas ranch he had just purchased months
prior.
Tauzin would go on to head PhRMA until 2010, ultimately amassing a
total of $19,359,927 in pay— $11.6
Million of which he received in his
last year with the organization. (There are varying explanations as to why
Tauzin left, but it’s largely irrelevant here.) Following his departure from PhRMA, Tauzin
once again decided against retirement. Perhaps closing out his winter years
languidly on his Texas ranch, hunting deer and comparing ATM receipts with old
colleagues seemed a bit unfair to all those poor souls who needed him and his
expertise the most. So instead, in addition to heading his own lobbying
firm, Tauzin lathered up in elbow grease and found more
work with the lobbying firm Alston
& Bird where he parlayed what could
have been a new found respect for fossil fuels into crusading on the Hill for
companies like ConocoPhillips.
Nobody on Capitol Hill or K
Street so much as batted an eye during any of this.
Why should they? Tauzin is just another name in a long list of lawmakers who
have behaved similarly. I’ll take a second to note here that there is a
somewhat analogous profession where this behavior would not be tolerated.
The Model Code
of Judicial Conduct dictates that, “[a] judge shall avoid impropriety and the
appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s activities”. There is a
very important reason that the court system wants to avoid even the appearance
of impropriety: It reflects the serious and warranted concern that, “…some conduct which is in fact ethical may
appear to the layman as unethical and thereby could erode public confidence in
the judicial system or the legal profession”.
The conduct of Congressman Tauzin following his departure from his
congressional seat doesn’t necessarily constitute an unquestionable impropriety—there
is some chance that it was all completely above board—but it would be a
difficult to argue that it doesn’t, at the very least, bear some appearance of
impropriety. It’s incredible that these types of immediate and questionable
employment and pay-grade transitions are not only common but generally accepted
as business as usual in Washington .
Congressman Tauzin’s brand of Revolving door politics is a major contributing
factor in the American People’s eroded confidence in the Congress. The
legislative branch should have the same concern about maintaining public
confidence in their institution as the court system does.
No comments:
Post a Comment