From the L.A. Times

Lobbyist Offers Make Jaws Drop
By Janet Hook

L.A. Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON < It is hard to shock people in Washington with tales of
powerful people who parlay their expertise and influence into
well-paying jobs in the private sector. But the revolving door has spun
to a new level lately, raising even the most jaded of eyebrows.
For months, the motion picture and prescription drug industries have
been wooing Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), offering big bucks for him
to come lobby on issues that he has overseen as chairman of the House
Energy and Commerce Committee.
With critics < including some fellow Republicans < wincing at the
appearance of a conflict of interest, Tauzin resigned last week as
committee chairman and announced he would not run for reelection this
year, citing health concerns.
"For him to continue to run the committee while he's an active candidate
for [the drug industry job] < that really is a no-no," said one
lobbyist, who is a renowned wheeler-dealer himself.
The offer, to be head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers
of America, has been particularly controversial because that group was
one of the biggest beneficiaries of the bill Tauzin helped write last
year to provide prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
Ken Johnson, Tauzin's spokesman, said that < contrary to allegations by
consumer groups and others < there had been no discussion of the
chairman's working for the group while the Medicare bill was being
written. He said Tauzin had done nothing improper because he was not
soliciting job offers and had been scrupulous about complying with House
ethics rules. Even before announcing he would step down as committee
chairman, Johnson added, Tauzin recused himself from health issues to
avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The flap comes just two months after the Bush administration's top
Medicare official, Tom Scully, left his post to join a law firm < where
he is expected to bring his knowledge of the new prescription drug law
to a lucrative practice specializing in healthcare. Congressional staff
members who helped write the law also have taken their expertise into
the private sector.
The controversy spotlights an especially murky area of ethics in the
nation's capital. Congressional rules impose few limits on the ability
of powerful people to look for private-sector jobs while they still hold
public office.
Some members of Congress try to avoid conflicts by not entertaining job
offers until they leave office. Others troll for work discretely.
Special-interest groups and lobbying firms are always on the hunt, and
every announcement of a powerful lawmaker's retirement sets off a
bidding war among competing interests.
Top prospects on this year's shopping list of retiring members are Sen.
John B. Breaux (D-La.), an influential lawmaker on taxes, health policy
and other hot issues, and Sen. Don Nickles (news, bio, voting record)
(R-Okla.), chairman of the Budget Committee. The two have joked about
joining forces in their own lobbying business, but neither is pursuing
post-retirement prospects as conspicuously as Tauzin.
The revolving door long has been a Washington fixture. Officials
regularly migrate from Congress or the executive branch to lobbying
firms and trade associations, and they naturally gravitate to jobs
handling issues they mastered while in office.
So for example, former chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee, J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), has remained involved
in energy issues since establishing his own lobbying firm after retiring
from Congress in 1997. Bill Archer (R-Texas), chairman until 2001 of the
tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, lobbies on tax legislation,
as does his former top aide, Ken Kies.
According the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, 151 former
members of Congress were registered as lobbyists in 2000.
Government ethics laws prohibit former members from directly lobbying
for one year after they leave office. However, the rules are less
specific on what they can do while in office and looking for
post-retirement work.
House members are allowed to discuss the prospect of future employment
while still in office. But House rules say that lawmakers may not
"permit the prospect of future employment to influence" their official
actions. They are encouraged < but not required < to recuse themselves
from handling issues that affect their potential employers. Some
lawmakers, like Tauzin, hire a lawyer or designate an intermediary to
field employment queries.
Many such queries come to members of Congress unbidden, often long
before they actually leave.
Former Rep. Bill Gradison, an Ohio Republican, said he was first sought
out for a job lobbying for the health insurance industry shortly after
winning reelection in 1992. Gradison, who was a senior Republican on an
important health subcommittee, resigned from the House to take the job a
few months later.
Former Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) said he was deluged with job
offers from the day he announced he would not run for reelection. Rather
than risk a conflict of interest, he told all supplicants that he would
not talk until after he had left office.
"People are best to get out of Congress and then decide what to do,"
Rudman said.
But a former member of Congress who asked not to be named said he could
not afford the luxury of waiting to begin a job search. He said he had
extensive conversations with a variety of firms before he left office.
"Most of us need a check on the 1st of January," he said. But he
objected to what Tauzin had been doing because it was "unseemly" to
entertain a job with an industry that so directly benefited from a major
piece of legislation he had crafted.
Rumors about Tauzin's retirement from Congress began swirling months ago
with reports that he was in line to succeed Jack Valenti as head of the
Motion Picture Assn. of America < a job reportedly worth more than $1
million a year. In mid-January, Tauzin unexpectedly turned the position
down.
Valenti said Tauzin told him "he was given a very, very generous offer
from another enterprise." Tauzin's spokesman said he turned the movie
job down because of health concerns. He had been hospitalized twice in
the last two months for a bleeding ulcer, and did not want to travel as
much as the movie job would require.
After word surfaced that the other job prospect was an even more
generous offer from the drug industry group, consumer organizations and
Democrats exploded. They said the job would amount to a reward to Tauzin
for helping deliver a Medicare bill last year that was strongly
supported by the drug industry.
Johnson, Tauzin's spokesman, said that the congressman was not in formal
negotiations with the drug group and had not been given a contract
proposal. Still, to avoid the appearance of impropriety, Tauzin
announced last week that he would recuse himself from healthcare issues.
Even after that, concern spread within Tauzin's party. Rep. Deborah
Pryce (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ohio) said some Republicans were
worried that Tauzin was making it easier for Democrats to continue
attacking the Medicare bill as a giveaway to the drug industry. The
pharmaceutical group represents major drug companies such as Merck & Co.
and Johnson & Johnson.
Johnson said that Tauzin's decision to step down as chairman was his own
and was not forced on him by Republican leaders. Having decided last
weekend not to run for reelection, Tauzin said in his letter of
resignation to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) that he wanted
to step down as chairman to "focus on whatever future awaits me and my
family."