Tauzin Expected To Leave House For Trade Group :WashPost

[jbfam4]

Tauzin Expected To Leave House For Trade Group
Lawmaker Declined Hollywood Job
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42531-2004Jan23.html?nav=hptoc_p
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 24, 2004; Page E01


Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is close to a decision to leave Congress to head the pharmaceutical industry's trade association after turning down an offer from Hollywood to succeed Jack Valenti as the movie industry's top lobbyist, sources in Washington and California said yesterday.

Tauzin telephoned Valenti with his decision late Thursday night after intense salary negotiations over recent days. The 12-term lawmaker is now considering an offer from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade group that represents drug giants such as Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co.

Tauzin chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecommunications, media and entertainment industries. Most recently, however, he was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.

PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. The organization recently announced that current president Alan F. Holmer will retire once a successor is appointed, following an ultimately successful but image-punishing battle over the Medicare legislation.

Tauzin would not be the first key public official involved in the Medicare legislation to leave for the private sector. In December, Thomas A. Scully, an author of the bill, resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to join an Atlanta law firm that represents drugmakers, hospitals and other health-care businesses.

[Southsideirish]

1. Isn't this turkey going to open a "canned hunt" ...ranch?

I think I read that he is - a place for the bush/cheney charmers to come and pretend their "men."

[Dudley_DUright]

2. What a surprise!

NOT! Billy says it is time to cash in all the chips he has accumulated carrying water for the big drug companies.

[Career Prole]

3. According to CNN...

...Tauzin's spokesman claims there's no ethical consideration.

A Tauzin spokesman disputed any suggestion of a conflict.
"Why should there be?" said Ken Johnson, who described Tauzin as "honorable."
"No one at any time approached him during the Medicare debate," Johnson said, adding that his boss had not decided whether to take the job.
But some of Tauzin's colleagues, including Republicans, believe the job offer could present a problem, congressional aides said.

Sure...no one mentioned it to him at all. I wish they'd stop using the term "honorable" when discussing repukes. It sullies the word.
For that matter I wish Bush would stop using the word "intelligence".
:puke:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/26/tauzin.ethics/index.html