Bill Thomas - 2001 Alleged Affair With Lobbyist

2001 Alleged Affair With Lobbyist

The Bakersfield Californian published an article on Thomas about an affair with Deborah Steelman, a lobbyist for Cigna, Pfizer, Aetna, United Healthcare Corporation, the Healthcare Leadership Council, and Prudential. Thomas was then chair of the House subcommittee that regulates HMOs. "Any personal failures of commitment or responsibility to my wife, family or friends are just that, personal," the former congressman wrote in an "open letter to friends and neighbors." Neither he nor Deborah Steelman explicitly denied the allegations. Deborah Steelman was promoted to VP of Eli Lilly, steered huge campaign gifts to Thomas' war chest and the health care industry scored big with the passage of Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.

Read more about this topic:  Bill Thomas

Famous quotes containing the words alleged and/or affair:

    The entire construct of the “medical model” of “mental illness”Mwhat is it but an analogy? Between physical medicine and psychiatry: the mind is said to be subject to disease in the same manner as the body. But whereas in physical medicine there are verifiable physiological proofs—in damaged or affected tissue, bacteria, inflammation, cellular irregularity—in mental illness alleged socially unacceptable behavior is taken as a symptom, even as proof, of pathology.
    Kate Millett (b. 1934)

    We are participants, whether we would or not, in the life of the world.... We are partners with the rest. What affects mankind is inevitably our affair as well as the nations of Europe and Asia.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)