Diaz-Balarts: If You Pay, We'll Play

TALLAHASSEE - Call it a case of influence peddling so blatant it would make Tom Feeney blush. A Miami Herald report today delves into the shady business going down between U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and a company under federal investigation for Medicare fraud. Hanger Orthopedic Group has showered the Diaz-Balart brothers with thousands in campaign contributions while it lobbies Congress to pass a federal bill it would profit from. The brothers are two of the key sponsors of the bill. Aside from the ethical questions involved with the two Congressmen shepherding the legislation mere days after accepting donations, the relationship makes further obvious the astounding hypocrisy of the Diaz-Balarts.

"After voting against healthcare for nearly half a million children in Florida and refusing to support the GI bill, Lincoln and MarioDiaz Balart have the gall to suggest their support for a crooked company that gave them thousands in donations is moral," Florida Democratic Party Press Secretary Alejandro Miyar said. "The pay–to–play message the DiazBalarts are sending is clear: the people of Florida don’t matter. Never mind supporting our state’s children and brave troops, unless of course they write lavish checks to the DiazBalart reelection campaigns," Miyar said. MIAMI HERALD WATCHDOG: DiazBalarts back bill after donation

Miamiherald.com/516/story/554526.html 

Fladems.com/page/m/699e816272c0d8a6/xQnM2n/VEsH/

Lincoln and Mario DiazBalart cosponsored a bill shortly after accepting $10,000 in campaign contributions from a company pushing the bill. They say the legislation is needed. BY DAN CHRISTENSEN, June 2, 2008 A Maryland prosthetics company pushing a new federal bill that would broaden insurance coverage for its products –– and boost its bottom line has enlisted significant political support from two of South Florida’s most prominent members of Congress.

Congressmen Lincoln and Mario DiazBalart are among the bill’s key backers. At the same time, the company is backing their reelection bids.

Hanger Orthopedic Group’s political action committee and its executives provided more than $10,000 in campaign contributions to the brothers in the weeks before they cosponsored the prosthetics parity bill on March 13.

The company’s lobbyists, paid $130,000 to push the issue since last summer, went further: They helped raise campaign money for several bill sponsors, including the Republican DiazBalarts in March and April as they face Democratic challengers.

Lincoln DiazBalart, whose campaign collected $7,100 from Hanger’s PAC and executives through March, said he is a "proud" bill sponsor.

 "I will continue to fight for those in need of prosthetics," said the senior member of the powerful Rules Committee, who declined to be interviewed but provided written replies. ``There is a clear and adheredto fire wall between my legislative work and fundraising for the campaign."

Representing parts of MiamiDade and southwest Broward counties, Lincoln faces former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez.

Younger brother Mario faces former MiamiDade Democratic Party chairman Joe Garcia in a district spanning the Everglades from west Miami to Naples.

"You better believe I am a cosponsor of a bipartisan bill to cover prosthetics for 1.8 million Americans without limbs including children and veterans!" wrote Mario DiazBalart, whose campaign got $3,000 from the PAC.

Hanger is supporting key bill backers across the country. Rep. Robert Andrews, DN.J., who introduced the bill, received $5,000 from H anger’s PAC for his primary campaign for a New Jersey Senate seat.

The DiazBalarts, traditionally not healthcare leaders on Capitol Hill, stand out from the bill’s three other original cosponsors. Not only was Hanger’s PAC more generous to their campaigns, neither brother is on the Committee on Education and Labor where the bill was referred.

Lincoln, too, has another unique tie to Hanger.

Last fall, the company and Lincoln launched a mission to provide artificial limbs for Ukrainian children. The trip to Florida earned public goodwill for the politician and gave the publicly traded company a chance to highlight the bill.

The DiazBalarts say they are firmly behind providing better coverage for those needing prosthetic devices.

"It’s the moral thing to do," Mario DiazBalart wrote.

Yet the ties between politicians and Hanger are so tight, say public watchdogs asked about the arrangement, they appear almost like partners.

"Member s are here to serve the public interest and not the interests of a private corporation," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Washington nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Hanger bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of orthotic and prosthetic patientcare services. It has 653 care centers, including three in Broward and one in MiamiDade, and 2007 revenues of $637 million.

BROADER COVERAGE

If approved next year, the Group Health Plan Prosthetics Parity Act, HR 5615, would require insurance companies to provide much broader coverage of artificial limbs, breasts and other prosthetic devices on par with other medical coverage. Today, benefits in that $2.5 billion market are often capped.

To push the bill forward, Hanger’s lobbyists in the Washington office of Foley & Lardner set up fundraisers for or attended campaign receptions thrown by the DiazBalarts and other sponsors Rep. Andr ews and Rep. Todd Platts, RPa., said Morgan Sheets, of the Amputee Coalition of America.

"Writing checks and attending cocktail parties or steak dinners that’s something we charged them with doing," said Sheets, who is working with Hanger to get the measure passed.

More than 1.8 million U.S. residents have lost a limb. And every year, 130,000 more Americans undergo amputation caused by accidents and chronic illnesses like diabetes, according to the bill.

Medicare, Medicaid and the Department of Veteran Affairs provide prosthetics benefits under the same terms as coverage for other medical goods and services. In seeking to hold down the cost of healthcare and premiums, insurance companies often limit how much they’ll pay.

Federal records show that Hanger’s PAC has contributed more than $28,000 to the campaigns of 13 members of the House and Senate since last May, including the DiazBalarts.

"The Hanger PAC contributes to candidates who support amputee rights, the orthotic and prosthetic profession and our other business interests," Hanger spokeswoman Jennifer Bittner said.

Hanger’s ethics code forbids employees from paying “inducements to influence government officials.”

New Jersey’s Andrews, looking to unseat incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg in Tuesday’s primary, received one contribution less than two weeks before he filed the bill. A spokesman said the donations are not tied to the legislation, calling their timing “purely coincidental.”

The PAC made some of its contributions to the DiazBalarts two days before they cosponsored the bill.

House rules forbid members from receiving compensation, including campaign contributions, given because of “influence improperly exerted from his position in the Congress.”

NO CONNECTION’

Carlos Curbelo, a campaign spokesman for the DiazBalarts, said there was "no connection" between the contributions and the bill.

The path to a po tential new law began in July at a meeting between Hanger representatives, company lobbyist Scott Klug (a former congressman from Wisconsin), Rep. Andrews and others.

"The mindset was to get bipartisan support," said Bill Caruso, Andrews’ chief of staff.

``At some point in time, they approached on the campaign side to do help unrelated to this."

As supporters geared up to find Republican support, Lincoln DiazBalart contacted the Amputee Coalition, Hanger and another prosthetics maker seeking help for disabled Ukrainian children he had aided as part of his Democracy building agenda, said the coalition’s Sheets.

The bill’s supporters saw it as an opportunity to "build a relationship," Sheets said.

Lincoln has worked "behind the scenes" to draft the bill, Sheets added, and “push it along.”