Politicians throughout the country are critical of pharmaceutical and device manufactures for paying physicians to perform such functions as clinical research, giving promotional talks, marketing consulting and advisory capacities.    They also are constantly discussing the “lavish” trips and parties that physicians take at company expense. 

Over the last five years, since the last PhRMA and AdvaMed Codes, the OIG Guidance, AG investigations and settlements, the trips and parties are pretty much history. 

The legislators say hey, we have rules, we are not allowed any “parties” or “trips” so doctors should be held to the same standard we are.

Our question is are they?

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal “Parties Skirt Rules on Gifts,
Plan Lavish Conventions,” this may not be the case.

 “When the Democratic Party holds its convention the week after next, members of Congress will be able to hear singer Kanye West at an all-expenses paid party sponsored by the recording industry.

They can play in a poker tournament with Ben Affleck, courtesy of the poker industry. They can try to hit a home run at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, thanks to AT&T Corp. Free drinks and cigars will be on offer at a bash thrown by the liquor industry.

The corporate largesse is on tap despite new ethics laws and rules that both chambers of Congress adopted in 2007, aimed at weakening the links between lawmakers and lobbyists. Spearheaded by the Democratic Party, the ethics effort included an attempt to ban corporations and lobbyists from throwing lavish parties for members at the national political conventions.

But in the months since the new rules took effect, lawmakers have watered down the guidelines, and Capitol Hill and K Street have teamed up to find ways around the guidelines as written. Politicians and lobbyists are now preparing about 400 of the biggest parties — both at the Democratic gathering in Coloradoand when Republicans convene the following week in St. Paul– biggest that conventioneers have ever seen.

400 of the biggest parties, this must be wrong, politicians don’t have parties anymore, they don’t take gifts, this must be untrue.

The rules don't apply to charitable fundraisers. So lawmakers and aides are free to play in a poker tournament sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance. Funding for the event and charitable contributions come from the alliance and various other sponsors. Because proceeds will go to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the poker lobby can pick up the tab for the event and attend along with about 200 poker celebrities, lawmakers, aides and delegates. Guests will be given $5,000 worth of chips for the four-hour tournament, with the winnings going to the veterans group. A spokeswoman for the alliance says the event complies with the law.

Another popular party exemption is the so-called "widely-attended" event clause. Under that rule, corporations can pick up the tab for parties if they meet two conditions. One is that at least 25 people invited are not members of Congress or staff. The second condition, which applies only to House members: The party must have some element that relates to official congressional business.

So when the Recording Industry Association of America decided to throw the Kanye West party, it teamed up with the One Campaign in order to promote solutions to global AIDS and poverty. Literature on the topic will be available at the event and several speakers will address poverty relief before the concert.

"The truth is the ethics changes haven't affected our parties very much," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the trade association.

Parties like this weren't supposed to happen at this year's conventions. On the first day Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, they introduced legislation and new rules banning or forcing broader disclosure of a range of campaign contributions, travel, gifts and meals given to lawmakers by corporations and the lobbyists they employ.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California called it the Democrats' signal effort to "drain the swamp." Breaking the ties between lobbyists and lawmakers was necessitated, Democratic lawmakers said, by a host of scandals under the Republican-run Congress.

The convention parties are the latest examples of how lawmakers and lobbyists have been finding ways to skirt such rules since they were passed. Faced with a ban on giving tickets to pricey charity events directly to lawmakers, corporations have in recent months been buying tickets at hundreds of dollars apiece, then donating them back to the sponsoring charity to give away — along with a list of lawmakers the companies wish to attend.

Corporations and trade groups say that they are paying strict attention to the letter of the new law. In preparation for the conventions, their lobbyists and lawyers have been presenting convention party plans to the House and Senate ethics committees, seeking an official nod on their legality. Lawmakers too have been seeking published guidance from their colleagues on those committees for acceptable convention-time behavior.

That guidance has so weakened Congress's own curbs on convention parties that some ethics experts say the parties are potentially more lavish now than they were in 2004.

As a young man I worked at a national convention and attended (actually crashed a few) parties, I can say it was very exciting to meet politicians and celebrities. Free food is always great when you are single.

We should be cautious to avoid arguments of hypocrisy as deep down we are all guilty of this sin in one way or another.   But at the same time, arguments over conflict of interest rules are valid, and we should be diligent to not game the system. 

The medical industry has gone out of their way to comply with the spirit of the laws and guidelines around conflict of interest, Let’s see if our Members of Congress and state legislators attending this year’s party conventions will do the same…