Tom Daschle

Policy Adviser, DLA Piper (since December 2009)

Why He Matters

On Feb. 3, 2009, Daschle withdrew his name from consideration as Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of the Health and Human Services Department after he revealed that he owed until recently $140,000 in back taxes for use of a limousine and driver provided by a business associate. Obama had asked Daschle to spearhead a massive effort to reform health care in the United States and, as such, head the new White House Office of Health Reform.

A former Senate majority leader and currently a fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), Daschle was one of the earliest prominent backers of Obama during his run for the White House, and his endorsement gave the green light to other key Democrats to join the Obama bandwagon.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Policy Adviser, Alston & Bird (2005 to November 2009); Distinguished fellow, Center for American Progress (2005 to 2008); Senate Minority Leader (2003 to 2005); Senate Majority Leader (May 2001 to 2003); Member of the U.S. Senate (1986 to 2005)
Birthday: Dec. 9, 1947
Hometown: Aberdeen, S.D.
Alma Mater: South Dakota State University, B.A., 1969

Spouse: Linda
Religion: Catholic
Web site

Path to Power

The son of a bookkeeper in an auto parts shop, Daschle was the first in his family to go to college. After graduating from South Dakota State University, he worked as an intelligence officer for the Air Force before coming to Washington in 1973. He worked as a staffer for Sen. James Abourezk (D-S.D.), the first Arab-American to serve in the U.S. Senate. When Abourezk was preparing to retire in 1978, Daschle returned home to run for office himself.

Daschle ran for the House district containing the eastern half of South Dakota and won by 139 votes. During the campaign, he and his wife knocked on 40,000 doors and he kept the names of supporters on note cards in a shoebox. In 1982, the state lost one of its two House seats after the Census count, and Daschle won a tough race against Republican incumbent Cliff Roberts. Already representing the entire state, he jumped to the Senate in 1986 where he became close friends with Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and then-Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine).

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When Mitchell retired from the Senate in 1994, Daschle ran for what he thought would be the majority leader slot. But the Democrats lost majorities in both the House and the Senate, and Daschle became a relatively low-profile minority leader compared with new House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Daschle was actually expected to lose that race for party leader to Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), but Sasser was one of the Democrats' biggest 1994 casualties, losing his state race to incoming Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) instead ran against Daschle, who gave up his seat on the Senate Finance Committee to then-Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.). Moseley-Braun's vote gave Daschle a 24 to 23 win in the leadership race.

During a decade of being in the minority, the soft-spoken Daschle was credited with keeping the Democrats together. In particular, he was able to unify his party in 1999 after President Clinton was impeached by the House. White House chief of staff John D. Podesta said the White House, "absolutely put our fate in the hands of Tom Daschle." He also dealt with a crisis after the Sept. 11 attacks, when an envelope with anthrax was mailed to Daschle's office.

Senate Majority Leader

In 2001, Daschle was majority leader for 17 days before George W. Bush was sworn-in to office. The Senate was split, 50-50, and outgoing Vice President Al Gore was the tie-breaking vote.

Following Bush's inauguration, Daschle agreed to a power-sharing arrangement with GOP leader Trent Lott (Miss.) to granting equal party representation on committees under the condition that a tie vote would allow a bill to come to the floor.

In a serious blow to the Bush administration and burnishing his own leadership credentials, Daschle regained the post of majority leader after then-Sen. Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party in May 2001 to become an independent who caucused with Democrats. Jeffords' party switch threw control of the Senate to Democrats (the party breakdown went from 50-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote, to 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats and 1 Independent).

In 2002, Daschle campaigned tirelessly for fellow Democrat Tim Johnson (S.D.) in his race against then-Rep. John Thune (R-S.D.), hoping to retain the position of majority leader. Johnson survived by 524 votes, but the Democrats lost the Senate majority.

2004 Senate Race

Two years later, Thune challenged Daschle, who had won by 2-to-1 margins in each of his last two elections. But Thune painted Daschle, who had helped lead the first filibuster of Bush's lower court nominations, as the lead Senate obstructionist. "I had people encouraging me to run for House. But the House isn't where the problem is," Thune said. "The House is going to be just fine. I don't know of a place more in need of leadership than the U.S. Senate."

In a nasty race that garnered national money and attention, Thune won by two points, the first time a sitting party leader had lost since 1952.Thune had the staunch support of the Bush administration and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who bucked tradition by campaigning against a sitting party leader.

Post-Senate Career and Tax Problems

After leaving the Hill, Daschle stayed involved in politics. He is a distinguished fellow at CAP, a visiting professor at Georgetown University and a policy adviser to the law firm of Alston & Bird. Despite advising clients on a wide range of issues, Daschle was not a registered lobbyist before being nominated as Health and Human Services secretary.

Daschle thought about running for president himself in 2008, but came out as an early Obama supporter. Daschle advised the Obama campaign and led the transition team's health-policy working group. Obama announced he was nominating Daschle as HHS secretary in December 2008.

But trouble soon hit in the form of tax problems. Daschle waited nearly a month after being nominated before revealing that he owed more than $140,000 in back taxes for the use of a car and a driver from a business associate. The former Senate majority leader said had known since June 2008 that he owed back taxes and interest on a car and driver provided by a wealthy New York investor when he was working for a lobbying firm.

Daschle's filings with Obama's ethics team also revealed that after leaving the Senate, the former lawmaker had advised some major health organizations and received income, including $220,000 in speaking fees, from others. Although he was not a registered lobbyist at the time, some said that Daschle should have been.

Although the Democratic Senate would have likely confirmed its former colleague, Daschle's was the third of Obama's high-profile nominees to disclose tax problems. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was confirmed despite owing $43,000 in back taxes from work at the IMF, and Nancy Killefer, Obama's nominee for chief performance officer, withdrew her nomination because of her failure to pay unemployment compensation for a household employee.

Daschle withdrew his name from consideration as the HHS nominee on Feb. 3, 2009.

Policy Adviser

Daschle resumed his work at Alston & Bird, where he advised interested players on the lay of the land in health reform. He never registered as a lobbyist.

"I'm very proud of the fact that I've drawn a very hard line with regard to advocacy on the Hill," Daschle told the New York Times about his role. "I've not made a call nor made a visit since I left the Senate on behalf of a client. And I don't have any expectation that I'll do that in the future."

Daschle left Alston & Bird for the firm DLA Piper, which has a broader global practice, in December 2009.

The Issues

But Daschle's exit from the public arena hasn't stopped him from influencing Obama's health-policy reform effort in an unofficial capacity. And a passel of his former aides remain at the most senior levels of the Obama administration.

Daschle has been trying to reform the health-care system for years. He was a supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 health-care overhaul, which died spectacularly. While in Congress, Daschle worked on providing universal health insurance, and since, he has strongly criticized George W. Bush for refusing to expand funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

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His 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do about the Health-Care Crisis," co-written with Jeanne Lambrew, lays out his views on how to change the health-care system. In the book, he calls health care the biggest U.S. domestic policy issue and recites stories of Americans who have struggled with poor health care. "Americans with solid, employer-based insurance may believe they are secure, but in our health-care system, everyone is just a pink slip, a divorce or a major illness from financial disaster."

Taking the role of policy adviser at the law firm DLA Piper in late 2009, was "really is an opportunity to immerse myself in international work," Daschle told the New York Times.

Federal Health Board

Daschle's key reform would have been the creation of a federal health board, modeled after the Federal Reserve system. As described in his 2008 book, "Critical," the board would set standards and systems, create guidelines about which treatments and procedures are most cost-effective and have authority over federally funded health-care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The board would write standards for government-run health insurance programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration. Daschle believed the board would effectively encourage private insurers to adhere to its standards. "It would create a public framework for a largely private health-care delivery system," he wrote in the book.

Daschle envisions a health board composed of independent experts who are above political scuffling. "Congress and the White House would relinquish some of their health-policy decisions to it," Daschle wrote in his book. "For example, a shift to a more effective drug service would be accomplished without an act of Congress or the White House."

Universal Health Care

In Daschle's plan, the board was the first step toward achieving universal health care. In 2007 testimony before Congress Daschle said, "There is no excuse in the wealthiest nation in the world for a person to suffer or die needlessly due to financial barriers to care, he said in 2006 testimony before Congress. "We can and must end uninsurance."

Health-Insurance Consultant Controversy

Daschle had been acting as an informal adviser to the Obama administration on health reform, when, in August 2009, BusinessWeek revealed that Daschle whad also returned to his role advising UnitedHealth, a major insurance company opposed to reform.

"They just want a description of the lay of the land, an assessment of circumstances as they appear to be as health reform unfolds," Daschle told BusinessWeek, saying he left direct discussions with his former colleagues in Congress to others at his law firm.

The Network

Daschle returned to Alston & Byrd after withdrawing his name as an HHS candidate. Former senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole (R-Kan.) is a special counsel at the firm.

But Daschle's former aides and staffers permeate the Obama administration. Obama's Senate chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is a former chief of staff to Daschle; Obama's congressional liaison Phil Schiliro was Daschle's policy director in 2004. Daschle also worked with Jeanne Lambrew at CAP, and the two wrote a book together. She, along with Mark Childress, were set to be Daschle's deputies at the White House before he stepped down.

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Additional Resources

Tom Daschle, Jeanne M. Lambrew, and Scott S. Greenberger, "Critical: What We Can Do about the Health Care Crisis," New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008
Calmes, Jackie, The New York Times, "Daschle Plans to Move to Global Firm," November 17, 2009
Jon Lauck, "Tom Daschle's Identity Politics," National Review Online, Oct. 6, 2004
Almanac for American Politics, 2002 edition
Dennie Hall, "Former senator diagnoses woes, prescribes health care remedy," The Oklahoman (Okalhoma City, Ok.), March 2, 2008
Jon Walker, "'Regular guy' to outspoken leader," Argus Leader, Oct. 17, 2004
US Fed News, "Sen Daschle criticizes administration for loss of children's health care funding," U.S. Fed News, Oct. 1, 2004
Ceci Connolly and Helen Dewar, "Anthrax scare comes to Capitol Hill; Letter to Daschle tested for bacteria; ABC worker's son has disease in N.Y.," The Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2001
Tim Johnson, Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
William M Welch, "S.D. senator packs up after 26 years on Hill," USA Today, Dec. 13, 2004
John Thune, Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
Diana Marrero, "Daschle keeps option open for run for president," Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, S.D.), Dec. 14, 2005
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Gracious but defeated, Daschle makes history," The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2004
Terhune, Chad and Keith Epstien, "The Health Insurers Have Already Won," BusinessWeek, August 6, 2009
Almanac of American Politics, 2002 edition
Almanac of American Politics, 2002 edition
Tom Daschle, Testimony before the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, "Living without health insurance: Why every American needs coverage," April 25, 2007
Connolly, Ceci, Kane, Paul, Stephens Joe, The Washington Post, 'Daschle Owed Back Taxes That Exceeded $128,000,' Feb. 1, 2009

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