Subject:  New Speaker of the House -- already contaminated......
Date:     Fri, 25 Dec 1998 161158 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------


.......Here is a bit of unhappy Christmas news.....The new Speaker
(Congressman Hastert) comes to us already badly contaminated by
contributions from the electric/telecommunications
industries......guru.......(See ****** below)...... 
_________________________________________________________________
   
02:50 AM ET 12/24/98

Health, Phone Cos. Back Hastert

 By JONATHAN D. SALANT=
 Associated Press Writer=
           WASHINGTON (AP) _ Under pressure this year to make new rules for
 managed care health plans, House Republican leaders looked to Rep.
 J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, now in line to become the next
 speaker of the House.
           The resulting bill from Hastert's task force had the industry's
 concerns in mind. Unlike a competing Democratic version, the
 Republicans refused to expand consumers' rights to sue their health
 plans. The GOP also decided to limit the amount of damages that a
 patient injured by medical malpractice could collect, and promote
 other industry-friendly measures.
           Hastert's expertise on health issues and his position on the
 House Commerce subcommittee on health have drawn thousands of
 dollars in campaign contributions from the industry.
           Health professionals, pharmaceutical firms, hospitals and
 insurance companies contributed a total of at least $171,455 to
 Hastert's 1998 campaign - accounting for nearly $1 of every $5 the
 Illinois Republican raised for his re-election, according to the
 Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.
           ``He knows how to parlay political positions into campaign
 contributions,'' said Larry Makinson, executive director of the
 Center. ``He's been very adept at that.''
           Hastert's office did not respond to requests for comment.
           Though the health industry opposed the GOP health care bill _
 which passed the House in July on a largely party-line vote but
 died in the Senate _ officials gave Hastert credit for at least
 listening to their concerns.
           ``He's always been willing to give us a fair hearing and he's
 extremely knowledgeable on the issues,'' said Chip Kahn, the
 incoming president of the Health Insurance Association of America.
 ``Even if he's doing legislation we oppose, it's being drafted so
 it will do as little harm as possible.''
           A 12-year veteran of Capitol Hill, Hastert is far from being a
 top House fund-raiser _ no need since he's regularly been a shoo-in
 for re-election. But like many congressmen, his contributions have
 closely followed his legislative assignments. In addition to the
 health panel, he sits on the Commerce Committee's subcommittees on
 energy and telecommunications.
 ******** In addition to health care, his biggest contributors include
 electric utilities, which gave $48,099 for his 1998 re-election
 campaign, and telephone companies, which gave $43,480. ********
           Hastert's most generous contributor over the last three
 elections has been BellSouth Corp., which comes under the
 jurisdiction of the telecommunications subcommittee he sits on.
 BellSouth and its employees have contributed $31,000 over those
 three election cycles.
           And Jane Mattoon, the wife of BellSouth lobbyist Daniel Mattoon,
 is the treasurer for Hastert's leadership political action
 committee, Keep Our Majority PAC. The PAC's mailing address is the
 Mattoon home in Northern Virginia. The PAC reported raising
 $122,788 between Jan. 1, 1997, and Oct. 14, 1998, and contributing
 $98,500 to GOP congressional candidates.
           Several interest groups that contributed to Hastert's campaign
 committee also gave to his leadership PAC, including Ameritech,
 which gave $10,480 to the campaign and $3,000 to the PAC;
 BellSouth, which contributed $1,500 to the PAC; and the Blue Cross
 and Blue Shield Association, which donated $4,500 to the PAC and
 $3,500 to Hastert's campaign.
           The PAC also received $1,000 from J. Patrick Rooney, president
 of Golden Rule Insurance Co., a leading proponent of tax-free
 medical savings accounts. Hastert helped broker a deal between
 congressional Democrats and Republicans in 1996 that set up a pilot
 program for the accounts. The provision was part of a law
 guaranteeing Americans the right to continue their health care
 coverage if they changed jobs.

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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html