Billy Tauzin | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1990s | |
| Chair of theHouse Energy Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2001 – February 4, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Tom Bliley |
| Succeeded by | Joe Barton |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's3rd district | |
| In office May 22, 1980 – January 3, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | David Treen |
| Succeeded by | Charlie Melançon |
| Member of theLouisiana House of Representatives | |
| In office 1973–1980 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II (1943-06-14)June 14, 1943 (age 82) Chackbay, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (before 1995) Republican (1995–present) |
| Spouse(s) | Gayle Clement Cecile Bergeron |
| Education | Nicholls State University (BA) Louisiana State University (JD) |
Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II (/ˈtoʊzæ̃/; born June 14, 1943) is an American lobbyist and politician.[1] He served as the President and CEO of thePharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), apharmaceutical company lobby group, from 2005 to 2010.
After serving four terms in the State House, Tauzin won a special election to theUnited States House of Representatives, and served from 1980 to 2005. He was consistently re-elected as a Democrat representingLouisiana's 3rd congressional district until 1995, when he joined the Republican Party and continued to be re-elected to his seat for another decade.[2]
OfCajun descent, Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II is a lifelong resident ofChackbay, a small town just outsideThibodaux. He graduated fromNicholls State University in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, where he was a member ofTau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and earned aJ.D. degree fromLouisiana State University in 1967.[3] While attending law school, he served as a legislative aide in theLouisiana State Senate.
Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II is married to Cecile Tauzin and has five children from a previous marriage.
Tauzin began his elective career in 1972 when he was elected to theLouisiana House of Representatives, serving four full terms as aDemocratic Rep. In his first term, he served alongside fellow DemocratsDick Guidry andLeonard J. Chabert.
In 1979,David C. Treen, theU.S. representative fromLouisiana's 3rd congressional district, was elected as the state's first Republican governor in more than a century. He had served as the firstRepublican representative from Louisiana sinceReconstruction.
Treen resigned his House seat on March 10, 1980. Tauzin won a special election for the seat on May 17 and was sworn into office on May 22, just five months after winning a fifth term in the state house. He won the congressional race by seven points, defeating DemocraticState SenatorAnthony Guarisco Jr., ofMorgan City andJim Donelon, ofJefferson Parish, who had left the Democratic Party for the Republican one.
Tauzin won a full term in November 1980, with 85 percent of the vote against minimal opposition. For 15 years, he was known as one of the moreconservative Democrats in the House of Representatives.[4] Even though he eventually rose to become an assistant majoritywhip, he felt shut out by some of his moreliberal colleagues and sometimes had to ask the Republicans for floor time. When the Democrats lost control of the House after the 1994 elections, Tauzin was one of the co-founders of theHouse Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate-to-conservative Democrats.
In 1987, Tauzin ran forgovernor of Louisiana but lost to colleagueBuddy Roemer, also a Congressman. The incumbent,Edwin Edwards, had a weakened second-place showing and withdrew from arunoff election. Others in the race were Republican U.S. RepresentativeBob Livingston of theNew Orleans suburbs and two other Democrats: former U.S. RepresentativeSpeedy Long andLouisiana Secretary of State James H. "Jim" Brown.
Finally on August 8, 1995, Tauzin himself became a Republican, claiming that conservatives were no longer welcome in the Democratic Party.[5] He soon became adeputy majority whip. He was the first representative to have been part of the leadership of each party in the House. Regardless of party, Tauzin remained popular at home. After 1980, he was re-elected twelve more times without major-party opposition; the first nine times he was completely unopposed.
Tauzin served as chairman of theEnergy and Commerce Committee from 2001 to February 4, 2004, when he announced that he would not run for a 13th full term. He has five children from his first marriage and backed his son,Billy Tauzin III, as his replacement. He appeared in ads that were criticized for blurring the lines on which man was actually running for Congress. In spite of his father's support, the younger Tauzin was defeated by 569 votes by a Democrat,Charlie Melancon.
During his tenure, Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II left his mark on issues ranging from natural gas, airline, trucking, and electricity deregulation to theClean Air Act,Superfund, and theTelecommunications Act of 1996. In addition, he was an original author of thePrivate Securities Litigation Reform Act and theCable Act, both of which became law despite aPresidential veto.
In 2003, he was inducted into theLouisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame inWinnfield.[6]
In January 2005, the day after his term in Congress ended, he began work as the head of thePharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).[7] a powerful trade group forpharmaceutical companies. Tauzin was hired at a salary outsiders estimated at $2 million a year. Five years later, he announced his retirement from the association (as of the end of June 2010).[1]
Two months before resigning as chair of theU.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees the drug industry, Tauzin had played a key role in shepherding through Congress theMedicare Prescription Drug Bill.[8] Democrats said that the bill was "a give-away to the drugmakers" because it prohibited the government from negotiating lower drug prices and bans the importation of identical cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere.
The Veterans Affairs agency, which can negotiate drug prices, pays much less than Medicare. The bill was passed in an unusual congressional session at 3 a.m. under strong pressure from the drug companies.[9][2]
As head ofPhRMA, Tauzin was a key figure in 2009health care reform negotiations that produced pharmaceutical industry support for White House and Senate efforts.[5]
Tauzin received $11.6 million from PhRMA in 2010, making him the highest-paid health law lobbyist.[10] Since 2005, Tauzin has been on the Board of Directors at LHC Group.[11]
Tauzin endorsed Jerome Schneider's bookThe Complete Guide to Offshore Money Havens by dubbing the book, "A serious contender for the best book on offshore banking I've ever seen."[12] Tauzin also spoke at one of Schneider's tax conferences.[13] After Schneider pleaded guilty in 2004 to assisting hundreds of people to avoid taxes through sham offshore banks,[13][14] a spokesperson for Tauzin called his endorsement "a stupid mistake."[13]
In his capacity as chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Tauzin "was one of the chief architects of the Medicare bill".[15] Tauzin's appointment shortly afterward (the day after retiring from Congress) as chief lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade association and lobby group for the drug industry, drew criticism from the consumer advocacy groupPublic Citizen, which claimed that Tauzin "may have been negotiating for the lobbying job while writing the Medicare legislation".[15][16]
It's a sad commentary on politics in Washington that a member of Congress who pushed through a major piece of legislation benefiting the drug industry, gets the job leading that industry.
— Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, 2004
TheObama-Biden 2008 election campaign criticised Tauzin and other like-minded politicians.[17]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 3rd congressional district 1980–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Energy Committee 2001–2004 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded byas Former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Representative |
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