(WShoots1) wrote in message ...

Word is, Billy Tauzin is leaving Congress to become a Lobbyist.

Yeah, for a phamaceutical company.


Not a company, but a trade group. His pay is said to be $2.5 million per year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...ml?nav=hptoc_p


Tauzin Expected To Leave House For Trade Group
Lawmaker Declined Hollywood Job

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 24, 2004; Page E01

Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is close to a decision to leave
Congress to head the pharmaceutical industry's trade association after
turning down an offer from Hollywood to succeed Jack Valenti as the
movie industry's top lobbyist, sources in Washington and California
said yesterday.
.....

Tauzin chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees
the telecommunications, media and entertainment industries. Most
recently, however, he was one of the principal authors of the Medicare
prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to
vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In
addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits,
the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the
price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.

PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation
package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given
to anyone at a trade association," a source said.
.....