Home / Hall of Shame / Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)

Dishonorable Mention

• Probed for insider trading. Sen. Frist is under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible insider stock trading. The agencies are examining whether he acted on inside information in ordering the sale of stock in the huge for-profit hospital chain, and Frist family business, HCA Inc. The sale, which came as HCA executives were selling off shares, took place shortly before a disappointing earnings forecast drove down HCA’s stock price by about 12 percent. In addition, Public Citizen has identified other well-timed Frist stock sales that we have asked the SEC and the Senate ethics committee to investigate. [www.Nasdaq.com, disclosure documents filed with U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics; Public Citizen letters to the SEC and Senate ethics committee; Washington Post, 10/24/2005]
• Secured a backroom deal for the drug industry. Under the guise of encouraging drug makers to produce vaccine for deadly ailments such as the avian flu, Frist used strong-arm tactics to slip into a defense spending bill provisions granting the industry sweeping protection from lawsuits. After having assured House and Senate conferees working on the bill that there would be no liability provisions, Frist worked to add the provisions to the bill after the conferees wrapped up their work. “Without a vote of the conferees, that legislation was unilaterally and arrogantly inserted into the bill after the conference was over in a blatantly abusive power play,” complained Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wisc.) In theory, a limited easing of liability for urgently needed new drugs can benefit public health by encouraging drug companies to produce potentially risky products they wouldn’t otherwise develop. But Frist’s provisions, approved late last year, go far beyond that – absolving drug makers of responsibility even for gross negligence or recklessness when making tainted, defective or deceptively labeled products. Worse still, the legal immunity extends to already available commercial drugs if they are used to prevent, treat or cure an epidemic or pandemic disease. By broadly relieving firms of liability, the Frist provisions likely will reduce the incentive for drug companies to make safe vaccines or drugs, and could deter people from being vaccinated. [Public Citizen news release, 12/20/05; Congressional Record, “Correcting Enrollment Of H.R. 2863, Department Of Defense Appropriations Act,” 200612/22/05]
• Charity all around. Frist’s AIDS charity, World of Hope, Inc., turned into a double-barreled example of cronyism and influence-peddling. The charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of the senator’s inner circle. Meanwhile, it raised the lion’s share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources, including several corporations with frequent business before Congress, such as insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield, manufacturer 3M, drug maker Eli Lilly and the Goldman Sachs investment firm. From the start, the charity aroused concern about creating another channel of coziness between Frist and moneyed interests: In 2004, Frist held a fundraiser for the charity, and more than half of those donating to the $3.5 million event were corporations and trade groups, many of them pharmaceutical companies with a stake in legislation before Congress. [Associated Press, 12/17/2005, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 9/18/2004]

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