17 December 2004

Drug Lobby Scores Again

As ever, postelection herds of politicians are migrating from the public sector to the promised land of Washington lobbying, led this year by Representative Billy Tauzin, an architect of the people's new Medicare drug law who is becoming the pharmaceutical industry's chief lobbyist at a rumored salary of $2 million a year.

 The eye-popping transition is quite permissible under current laws, which facilitate something dubbed Washington's revolving door. In truth, the process is closer to osmosis, with the "wall" between the public and private sectors serving as a semipermeable membrane in the body politic.

 Thomas Scully, who helped steer the drug subsidy bill to passage as the administration's Medicare expert and overzealous public information censor, preceded Mr. Tauzin as a lobbyist for drug companies, leaving his government post in late 2003. The path is well worn. Remember Senator Zell Miller, the maverick Democrat fulminating for the people in a turncoat stint at the Republican convention? He may have to modulate his rants now in addressing corporate clients as a newly minted consultant on government. Joining him is Powell Moore, the assistant secretary of defense who dealt with Congress on big-ticket items and knows its power points well. There's not room on this page to list all the politicians and staff members moving from serving in the government to the richer world of influencing it.

Mr. Tauzin faces a token "cooling off" period of one year, when he cannot directly lobby his old buddies. For that period, he'll have junior lobbyists work the corridors. But Mr. Tauzin, the celebrated back-slapper from Louisiana, remains free to "interact socially" with the lawmakers, and he can eventually brandish his alumnus pin to get access to the debating chamber. He can even make campaign contributions as the pharmaceutical industry's war chest moves him.

 The taxpayers who used to pay these new private-sector experts should know that there are worthy proposals for firmer no-lobbying periods of three years and for an end to floor privileges for the alumni strutting like brokers. So far, these ideas have no powerful lobby to give them half a chance with Congress.

A New York Times Editorial

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