Billy Tauzin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 3rd district
In office May 22, 1980 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	David Treen
Succeeded by	Charlie Melancon
Personal details
Born	Wilbert Joseph Tauzin II (1943-06-14) June 14, 1943 (age 68) Chackbay, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party	Democrat (1972-1995) Republican (1995-present)
Spouse(s)	(1) Gayle Clement Tauzin (2) Cecile Tauzin
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Lobbyist

Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin II (English pronunciation: /'bɪli 'toʊzɪn/; born June 14, 1943) is an American lobbyist and politician. He was President and CEO of PhRMA, a pharmaceutical company lobby group. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1980 to 2005, representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district.

Personal life

Of Cajun descent, he is a lifelong resident of Chackbay, a small town just outside Thibodaux, Tauzin graduated from Nicholls State University in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and earned a law degree from Louisiana State University in 1967. While attending law school, he served as a legislative aide in the Louisiana state Senate.

He is married to Cecile Tauzin and has five children by a previous marriage.

Political career

Tauzin began his elective career in 1972, when he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives and served four full terms as a Democrat. In 1979, 3rd District Congressman Dave Treen, Louisiana's first Republican congressman since Reconstruction, was elected the state's first Republican governor since that time. He 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 by seven points. Tauzin defeated another Democrat, who also later turned Republican: Jim Donelon. Tauzin then won a full term in November 1980, with 85 percent of the vote.

For 15 years, Tauzin was one of the more conservative Democrats in the United States House of Representatives. Even though he eventually rose to become an assistant majority whip, he felt shut out by some of his more liberal 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 cofounders of the House Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate-to-conservative Democrats.

However, on August 8, 1995 Tauzin himself became a Republican, claiming that conservatives were no longer welcome in the Democratic Party. He soon became a Deputy majority whip, becoming the first Congressman to have been part of the leadership of both parties in the House. Regardless of party, Tauzin remained popular at home. After 1980, he was reelected 12 more times without major-party opposition; the first nine of those completely unopposed.

Tauzin served as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee from 2001 until February 4, 2004 when he announced he wouldn't run for a 13th full term. Tauzin, who has five children by his first marriage, heavily backed his son, Billy Tauzin III, as his replacement, even going so far as to appear in ads that were criticized as 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 Democrat Charlie Melancon.

During his tenure, he left his mark on issues ranging from natural gas, airline, trucking and electricity deregulation to the Clean Air Act, Superfund and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In addition, he was an original author of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Cable Act – bills which went on to become law despite a Presidential veto.

Controversies

Tauzin endorsed Jerome Schneider's book "The Complete Guide to Offshore Money Havens," dubbing the book "A serious contender for the best book on offshore banking I've ever seen."^[1] Tauzin also spoke at one of Schneider's tax evasion conferences.^[2] In 2004 Schneider pled guilty in a scheme where he assisted hundreds of people to avoid taxes through sham offshore banks.^[2][3] A spokesperson for Tauzin called the endorsement "a stupid mistake."^[2]

Career as a lobbyist

While recovering from a fight with cancer, Tauzin resigned from Congress and began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies. Five years later he announced his retirement from the association (as of the end of June, 2010).^[4]

It was reported that PhRMA had offered more than $2.5 million per year for his services, outbidding the Motion Picture Association of America, which had offered Tauzin $1 million to lobby for it.^[5]

Two months before resigning as chair of the committee which oversees the drug industry, Tauzin had played a key role in shepherding through Congress the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, a bill which had been criticized by opponents for being too generous to the pharmaceutical industry. The switch from regulator to lobbyist was widely noted.^[6]

This link was explored at great length in an April 1, 2007 interview by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes. The report, Under the Influence, pitted Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) against Tauzin and accused him of using unethical tactics to push a bill that "the pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote". Along with Tauzin, many of the other individuals who worked on the bill are now lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry. Michael Moore's 2007 film Sicko levied similar criticism.^[7]

As head of PhRMA, Tauzin was a key player in 2009 health care reform negotiations that produced pharmaceutical industry support for White House and Senate efforts.^[8] Reportedly, proposals for Medicare Part D cost reductions and permitting drug importation from Canada were dropped in favor of $80 billion in other savings.

The 2010 Form 990 filed by PhRMA, as documented by Guidestar, shows total annual compensation to Tauzin totalled $11,578,956.

Tauzin now is on the Board of Directors at Louisiana Healthcare Group.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield^[9]

References

External links

• Boston Globe "High cost for me-too drug" By Marcia Angell February 12, 2007, boston.com
• CBS NEWS "Under The Influence 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft Reports On Drug Lobbyists' Role in Passing Bill That Keeps Drug Prices High" New York, April 1, 2007, cbsnews.com
• Entry in the Congressional Biographical Dictionary, bioguide.congress.gov

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