Tauzin: 'I'm not soliciting employment from anyone'
Congressman under fire for considering job offer
From Ted Barrett
CNN Washington Bureau
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Louisiana Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin: "When I decide my future, the folks of Louisiana will be the first to know."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A powerful Republican committee chairman, under attack for entertaining a lucrative job offer from the pharmaceutical lobby just weeks after negotiating a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, brushed off his critics Thursday.
"I'm not soliciting employment from anyone," said Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-Louisiana, in his first public comments since word surfaced last week that he was considering an offer to head PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association. The organization is considered one of the most influential lobbies in Washington.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Wednesday called Tauzin's consideration of the job an "abuse of power and conflict of interest."
Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, has asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate if Tauzin had been approached about the job while the bill to revamp Medicare was being negotiated. Tauzin's spokesman has said his boss was only approached after the measure was signed into law.
Tauzin spoke to CNN Thursday as he boarded a train to Philadelphia, where he plans to discuss the PhRMA job with Republican leaders at an annual retreat.
But even before that train left the station, one House Republican leader, Conference Chair Deborah Pryce of Ohio, warned the party might be damaged if Tauzin takes the job.
"I just think it might hurt some of the issues we've worked so hard on," Pryce said, offering rare public criticism of a fellow Republican.
Many Republicans are concerned about relentless Democratic attacks that the drug benefit is stingy for seniors while lucrative for the big drug makers who are represented by PhRMA. The GOP launched a public relations effort last year telling seniors that the changes benefit them.
"I think he will get an earful from his colleagues," Pryce said.
But another Republican leader, Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri, said, "I'm confident he wasn't talking to PhRMA while negotiating this bill" -- something not allowed under House rules.
"I think it's been well understood that Chairman Tauzin was considering outside options for a long time," Blunt said. "I don't believe this was one of them at the time we were moving the bill."
Turned down MPAA offer
In fact, the Motion Picture Association of America, the lobby for the Hollywood studios, offered Tauzin their top job last week, but he turned it down.
In the exchange with CNN, Tauzin insisted he hasn't decided whether to take the PhRMA job. Four separate times he said, "Right now, I'm just doing my job."
He added: "When I decide my future, the folks of Louisiana will be the first to know, not you. And I'll know that in time. Right now, I'm just doing my job."
