Lobbyists write health care reform speeches for Reps., including Lynn Jenkins

  Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan.

A not-so-shocking article from the New York Times reports 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats used eerily similar statements on health care reform from a speech written for lawmakers by lobbyists working for one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, Genentech.

Genentech is completely owned by Roche Applied Science, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. According to the article, the lobbyists wrote two separate speeches for Democrats and Republicans.

The Times reports Democrats used the statements to emphasize job creation in the drug industry in the House health reform bill while Republicans supported a provision favorable to the biotechnology company though opposing the overall bill

"Lawmakers from both parties said it was important to conduct research on such 'biosimilar' products in the United States. Several took a swipe at aggressive Indian competitor," the article states.

One of the Republicans mentioned in the story was Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who used several of the same statements as two other Republican lawmakers.

This could be a combination of an incredible lobbying effort and a lack of care in editing and revising press releases by the politicians' staff. Though members of Congress often use statements and statistics from lobbyists and interest groups, the Times states, "It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists."

Though lobbyists are often the whipping boys of alleged political corruption, the political impact of these finding may have little impact on the members of Congress mentioned in the story.

For those sports fans out there, the situation reminds me of recruiting violations in college athletics. Every college is probably breaking some recruiting rules or guidelines. The few schools that are caught are generally given a slap on the wrist and the process continues much like the use of lobbyist and interest group information will continue in Congress.