CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– LOBBYING
June 30, 2009 – 9:37 a.m.
Drug Industry Lobbying Efforts, Campaign Funds Tilt Toward Democrats
By Bennett Roth, CQ Staff
The pharmaceutical industry, which has long invested heavily in federal lobbying, is now on course to smash its previous records as it tries to shape the health care overhaul pushed forward by Democrats.
The industry is increasingly employing Democratic lobbyists with ties to the Obama administration and congressional leaders such as Sen. Max Baucus , D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. A few years ago, when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, industry representatives were solidly allied with the GOP.
Such efforts might be having an effect. The drug industry sealed a deal recently with Baucus to offer $80 billion in drug discounts for seniors as part of Medicare. The agreement might preempt efforts by liberal Democrats to seek even deeper concessions from the drug industry. The drug companies have opposed a government health insurance component that President Obama and more liberal Democrats are seeking, a provision that could lead to more control over drug prices.
Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard University, said that drug companies have been “smart and savvy” in their dealings with Congress.
“Their involvement gets them a seat at the table,” he said.
He said the industry has substantially increased its activities on Capitol Hill since 2003, when President George W. Bush pushed through a Medicare overhaul (PL 108-173) that included prescription drug subsidies for seniors, known as Medicare Part D.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers spent more than any other health care sector on lobbying in the first quarter of this year, shelling out almost $50 million to influence the federal policy making, 17 percent more than they did on average for each quarter of 2008, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosure statements by CQ Moneyline.
The industry’s top trade organization, the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), spent $6.9 million during the first three months of this year on lobbying expenses, a 37 percent jump from what it spent on average per quarter last year.
Overall the pharmaceutical and drug products industry hired 1,309 lobbyists in the first quarter of this year including three dozen former members of Congress, the Center for Responsive Politics found in an analysis of lobbying disclosure filings.
PhRMA has built up an extensive lobbying team that now includes both an in-house staff of at least 26 people and 40 outside firms, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with Congress.
Tapping Hill Democratic Aides
As Democrats have cemented their grip on power in Washington, PhRMA has also enlisted the expertise of more former congressional Democratic members and aides.
Last fall, PhRMA replaced the head of its in-house lobbying team, Alan Gilbert, a Republican who left the group, with Bryant Hall, who worked for former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida (1987-2005) before he joined the trade group in 2004.
In 2008 PhRMA added the high-profile lobbying team, the Breaux Lott Leadership Group, whose principals are former Louisiana Democratic Sen. John B. Breaux (1987-2005) and former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott of Mississippi (1989-2007).
Breaux, a former Finance Committee member who worked on numerous health care issues before he left the Senate in 2004, is listed as primary lobbyist for the account on the lobbying disclosure forms. The firm received $150,000 for lobbying for PhRMA on Medicare drug benefits in the first quarter of this year.
Key former Democratic staffers are also on the payrolls of lobbying firms that have been retained by PhRMA for a number of years. Jeff Forbes, a former chief of staff to Baucus, is a lobbyist with Cauthen Forbes & Williams, which has been working with PhRMA since 2004. Another former chief of staff to the Montana senator, David Castagnetti, is a principal in Mehlman, Vogel, Castagnetti, which has lobbied for the drug group since 2006.
Charles Brain, the president of Capitol Hill Strategies, which has lobbied for PhRMA since 2004, served in the Clinton administration and was a special assistant to Rep. Charles B. Rangel , D-NY. in 2001 when he was ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. Rangel is now the chairman of Ways and Means, which is one of three committees in the House responsible for health care. Brain’s firm also works for the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., and the California-based biotechnology company, Amgen.
Large drug companies have also boosted their individual lobbying expenses, with New York based-Pfizer spending $6.1 million in the first quarter of this year, about double what it spent on average per quarter last year, according to CQ Moneyline.
“We are committed to making our voice heard and to be constructively engaged in our nation’s health care debate,” said Chris Loder, a spokesman for Pfizer, who added that company officials had met with lawmakers of both parties and the Obama administration
Pfizer and other companies have hired Democratic lobbying firms in recent years. Since 2007, Pfizer has retained the Glover Park Group, whose founders include former Clinton administration spokesman Joe Lockhart.
The Indiana-based drug giant Eli Lilly last year hired Heather Podesta and Partners. Heather Podesta is married to lobbyist Tony Podesta, former counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a longtime advocate of health care reform. Tony Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton who headed Obama’s transition team. The Podesta family has long been active in Democratic politics.
In March Heather Podesta threw a fundraiser at her house for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that featured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , according to news reports.
Tony Podesta’s lobbying firm, Podesta Group Inc., was paid $60,000 in the first quarter of this year to lobby for Amgen, lobbying disclosure records show.
Amgen, which spent $2.7 million in lobbying the first quarter of this year, has an in-house lobbying team that includes Scott Olsen, a former Baucus staffer.
Follow the Power
The drug companies have continued to hire prominent Republicans to help them influence Congress and the administration. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (1969-1996) lobbies through the law firm of Alston & Byrd for the Celegene Corps, and a former Ways and Means chairman, Republican Bill Archer (1971-2001) of Price Waterhouse Coopers lobbies for Schering-Plough Corp.
But when it comes to campaign money the industry has clearly been shifting its bucks to Democrats. In 2006, the drug companies gave two-thirds of their contributions to Republican candidates. By the 2008 election cycle, drug companies were evenly splitting their contributions between the parties, and in the first quarter of this year they had given Democrats 55 percent of the contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics study. The top beneficiaries of drug company largesse include the leaders in both parties and key committee chairmen such as Baucus and Rangel, who took in $458,064 and $$277,200 respectively.
Craig Holman, legislative representative for the watchdog group Public Citizen, said of the shift to Democrats in lobbying and campaign contributions, “This is the best way for the pharmaceutical industry to get their foot in the door.”
But even smarter, Holman said, is employing former Democratic staffers who understand how legislation is being conceived and crafted.
“The industry buys access to the hearts and minds and networks of those who are writing legislation,” Holman said.
Just a few years ago the drug industry was wooing Republicans and was not on the best terms with Democrats. In 2005 PhRMA hired former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana (1980-2005) to be its president. Tauzin, a former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, had helped push through the prescription drug benefit to Medicare in 2003. He sided then with the drug companies in fending off Democratic efforts to have the federal government negotiate drug prices for seniors. During the 2008 campaign, Obama decried high drug costs and vowed to force drug companies to negotiate with the federal government on Medicare drug prices.
But at a PhRMA conference in San Antonio this March, Tauzin underscored his previous affiliation with the Democratic Party (he switched parties in 1995) as he related an imaginary conversation he would have with President Obama.
“Please put away any preconceived notions you have of us. We need to do this work together, all of us — Democrats and Republicans,” Tauzin said he would tell Obama. “I’m sure you know that I have been both a Democrat and a Republican. In fact, Senator John Breaux called me a transvestocrat. I can help you here.”
Alex Knott contributed to this story.
Comments
How can the American people expect to be heard when the lobbyist spend millions to get their issues pushed through??!! We don't have a chance, what happened to your vote being heard??!! The American people need to stand together and force the lobbyists out!! The elected officials had better take heed and change their ways before the next election or they are going to be in for a rude awakening!!
If the pharmaceutical industry is in favor of something or offering what appears to be "generous," you can bet that it won't be god for the American public. There is nothing altuistic about the drug industry, and they will expect Sen. Baucus who has receive a lot of money from them, to go along.
CQ, where is the heading clearly stating that the commercial video message promoting GE's electronic medical records- embedded next to the story about pharmaceutical company lobbying efforts- is advertising, not editorial content? Your decision not to tell the whole story about your relationship with GE jeopardizes your journalistic credibility.
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