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Tauzin-Dingell Fact Sheet 8

Billy Tauzin Should Recuse Himself On Voting On Telecom And Broadband Issues.

At a time when campaign finance reform is a serious topic, Representative Billy Tauzin should be the porter-child of why the system needs to be fixed. We believe that Rep. Billy Tauzin recuse himself from voting on Telecom and broadband issues, much less create new laws, because of his numerous and obvious ties with the Bell companies.

Here are just a few representative samples, compiled by various reporters using disclosure records. To read numerous articles and reports about the Tauzin-Dingell bill see:

http://www.newnetworks.com/TauzinDingellisevil.htm

To read our summary of why Billy Tauzin should recuse himself from voting on telecom issues see:

http://www.newnetworks.com/recusetauzin.htm

 

  • "U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin Is Rewarding Telecom Donors", Bloomberg News 05/23 03:03
  • "Before the 1998 election, as BellSouth urged Tauzin to introduce the initial version of the broadband bill, Chief Executive F. Duane Ackerman and 40 other company employees each gave up to $1,000 to Tauzin's Bayou Leader political action committee.
  • The Bells routinely rank among Tauzin's top campaign contributors. During the 1999-to-2000 election cycle, he accepted $13,750 from Verizon Communications Inc., his biggest donor, and $10,250 from SBC Communications Inc., which ranks No. 3.
  • Billy Tauzin III, Tauzin's son, works as a BellSouth lobbyist in Houma, Louisiana, the heart of his father's congressional district.
  • BellSouth staff members fill half of a list of Tauzin's top 80 individual donors, as compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
  • Jessica Wallace, appointed by Tauzin in January as his committee's telecommunications counsel, lobbied for SBC and BellSouth at Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson & Hand from 1998 to 2000. ... A disclosure form she filed in 1999 indicated she flogged the initial broadband bill for Bell Atlantic Corp., now part of Verizon.
  • Monica Azare, a former chief counsel to Tauzin, joined Verizon Wireless Inc. last year as a lobbyist. Dan Brouillette, Tauzin's legislative director from 1989 to 1996, lobbied for Bell Atlantic at R. Duffy Wall & Associates in 1997 and 1998.
  • Henderson, one of Tauzin's hunting friends and a lobbyist at Public Strategies Inc., has repeatedly represented the United States Telecom Association, a trade group for BellSouth and other Bells.
  • Verizon's Barr says he can't think of an instance when Tauzin backed a bill that the Bells opposed.
  • "Guess who's paying for Tauzin's trips?" States News Service, June 19, 2001
  • phone giant SBC Telecommunications sent Tauzin to San Diego in January 2000, while BellSouth took care of his travel fare from Washington to New Orleans last June.
  • And the USTA … (primarily funded by the Bell companies) paid for the congressman's trip to Palm Springs, Calif., in February 2000.
  • "Chairman Billy Tauzin, Bell Ringer", Interactive Week, 2/19/01
  • "The Bells have contributed millions of dollars to Tauzin and the GOP through events he organized. They have supplied him with transportation on their corporate jets and paid his travel expenses for excursions across the country and around the world. He has taken frequent hunting trips with Bell executives.