What's that smell?

Byline: The Register-Guard

The rotten smell wafting through the corridors of Congress last Thursday is so commonplace it probably passed unnoticed in most Capitol offices. But it would have gagged ordinary citizens who aren't used to the unpleasant odor of a public servant cashing in favors to fat-cat lobbyists for personal enrichment.

Hold your nose, here goes: Outgoing Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., who helped make the badly flawed Medicare prescription drug bill a golden goose for the pharmaceutical industry, will become the next president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's main lobbying organization. His reported salary? Two million George Washingtons a year.

It's all legal; that's the crime of it. Congress makes the rules that grease the revolving door between legislative offices and lobbyists' headquarters. As the Tauzin stinker sadly illustrates, that door is spinning like a currency press at the U.S. Mint.

The Center for Responsive Politics reported that Tauzin raised more than $218,000 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical manufacturers over the past 15 years, with $91,500 of that in the 2002 election cycle, the first cycle for Tauzin as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Forty-five percent of the 431 lobbyists employed by the drug industry or HMOs previously worked for the federal government. Among them are 30 former U.S. senators and representatives - 18 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, cited the Tauzin situation as a clarion call for reforms in the rules governing former members of Congress who go to work representing special interests. Among Public Citizen's proposals: Prohibit members of Congress from negotiating employment while serving in Congress.

Additional reforms are essential. No amount of air freshener can mask the fishy smell of deals like the one Tauzin landed on his way out of the Capitol's front door.