In the News

He’s not sexy, using that term in the political sense. Members of Congress in both parties here use other words to describe 8th District Rep. Larry Bucshon.

The four-term Republican probably never will bring his colleagues to their feet with an electrifying speech. The television networks, well, they haven’t tripped over themselves clamoring to interview him yet. People don’t turn and look when he enters the room.

Some members – Democrats, mostly – say they don’t even know Bucshon. That and the institutional challenges of being in the minority party pose a threat to his effectiveness in Congress if he is re-elected and Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November.

But after eight years on Capitol Hill, the former heart surgeon is acknowledged as a subject matter expert in health care and a serious, sober minded – if unspectacular -- legislator. Some of his peers have advanced faster to a key committee he sought to join – but he did eventually get there. He is, in many ways besides ranking 197st in seniority, squarely in the middle of the 435-member House.

“He’s not a guy who’s going to run you over. He’s not a guy who’s going to dazzle you with his hands,” Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer said when asked to assess Bucshon’s hockey skills.

The two men are among a tiny handful of members who compete with staff and lobbyists in the annual Congressional Hockey Challenge for charity. They also work together on the House Republican leadership’s “whip team” of vote counters.

“Larry’s going to think about the game,” Emmer went on. “He clearly knows the game – what position you’re playing, whether you’re playing one of the offensive wings or you’re playing center or you’re playing on the blue line, and he puts himself in a position to…”

Emmer glanced around his Capitol Hill office, realizing in a second that all the hockey talk was an apt metaphor for Bucshon’s game in Congress. The 8th District congressman won’t set any scoring records, but he does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score.

“He’s a workhorse, not a show horse,” Emmer said. “On health care issues, on insurance issues related to health care, Larry is a guy that has some very significant influence behind the closed doors.

“Larry is a guy that people listen to within our (Republican) conference when he talks — because he’s not always talking.”

Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican who sits with Bucshon on the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, broke off from a gaggle of House members rushing to a Capitol elevator when asked about him.

“He’s in committee. He pays attention to what’s going on, and he’s always contributing in the committee hearings and working behind the scenes on bills,” said Griffith, a member alongside Bucshon on the subcommittee on health.

Praise for Bucshon comes from Democrats who work with him, too.

Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell said Bucshon doesn’t preen for the cameras, doesn’t take cheap shots and doesn’t do anything policy-wise that indicates he is anything less than sincere about improving health care.

“Larry cares about this stuff. He takes leadership on issues. We might not vote the same way, but he cares about stuff,” said Dingell, a colleague of Bucshon’s on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

If Bucshon is a resource for House Republicans on health care policy, so Dingell is for Democrats. She is a founder and past chair of the National Women’s Health Resource Center and the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health. She once chaired the Michigan Infant Mortality Task Force.

Dingell immerses herself in the work of the 54-member Energy and Commerce Committee, speaking often publicly about its issues and mission. Her husband, John D. Dingell Jr., was the committee’s longtime chairman until several years before his retirement after 59 years in Congress in 2015.

“See, I bring the history of someone who’s been an advocate. He’s been a doctor,” Debbie Dingell said of Bucshon. “I think we both really want to make sure that if somebody’s sick, they get attention, but we probably disagree on how you make sure that everybody’s got access to affordable, quality health care.”

Colorado Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette teamed up with Bucshon in 2017 to draft the Diagnostic Accuracy and Innovation Act, designed to improve regulatory oversight of diagnostic tests. This year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed significant changes to the draft, which remains in development.

"(Bucshon's) medical background really helps him have some of the substantive information," said DeGette, also a member of the subcommittee on health.

DeGette represents a progressive, urban Denver-area district. She called Bucshon "a very serious legislator."

"He's no-nonsense. He gets it done," she said. "And if he disagrees with you he knows why, and he'll say why, and then you can work through it."

By the numbers

In the hurly-burly of House committee and floor work, telltale signs attest to Bucshon’s profile as a legislator.

The 8th District congressman has two legislative assistants who coordinate with committee staff before hearings, brief him on the written testimony of witnesses and help craft questions. As is the custom in the House, each is responsible for a wide range of issues. But it is the supervising legislative director whose “portfolio,” in Washington-speak, includes health care issues.

On the roughly 100-member whip team, Bucshon is tasked with securing the votes of fellow Indiana Republicans Jim Banks and Trey Hollingsworth for House leadership-supported initiatives – assuming he supports them himself. When the issue is healthcare-related, the leadership asks him to “whip” other GOP members, too.

But by the numbers, Bucshon’s record of legislative achievement is a mixed bag.

The 8th District congressman was the 149th most effective of 250 Republicans who served in the House in 2015-16, according to a “Legislative Effectiveness Score” devised by the Center for Effective Lawmaking.

Bucshon did significantly better in the 2013-14 session, coming in 77th out of 240 Republicans – and much worse in his first term in 2011-12, when he ranked 231st of 245 House Republicans.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking’s research repeatedly has been cited by President Donald Trump, who reminds Indiana voters that Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly ranked 44th out of 44 Senate Democrats in 2015-16.

The Center, a partnership between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, factors into its formula the importance of legislation offered by members, how many of the bills move forward in the lawmaking process and how far they go.

Bucshon, per usual, falls somewhere in the middle.

“He’s performing less well than somebody who has a bunch of things that become law or are tackling the most important issues, but he’s scoring a lot higher than people who didn’t get any action on their bills or didn’t introduce very many,” Center Director Craig Volden said.

The 8th District congressman’s most recent “Legislative Effectiveness Score” of 149th was eclipsed by fellow Indiana Republicans Jackie Walorski, Susan Brooks, Todd Young and Luke Messer, who ranked 67th, 68th, 74th and 129th, respectively. Bucshon did rank higher than Marlin Stutzman and Todd Rokita.

A separate benchmark score noting that Bucshon “meets expectations” factored in his seniority, majority party status and his lack of committee or subcommittee chairmanships.

Congress.gov, the legislative website of the Library of Congress, reports that in eight years, Bucshon has introduced 48 pieces of legislation and seen just one passed into law. Brooks, widely seen as a potential House leader, has seen four bills become law in six years.

But Bucshon argued that legislative accomplishments aren’t always measured in the number of bills a lawmaker gets passed. It is a point made by many Congress-watchers who note that lawmakers’ more successful bills often end up attached to larger compromise legislation.

“If there’s legislation going through the (Energy and Commerce) committee, even if it’s not mine, we review those, and if we have any input we give input to the committee,” Bucshon said. “Our name may not be on it, but there’s a lot of things that you do as a member of Congress that don’t end up actually in the bill.”

What matters, Bucshon said, is “your active engagement in the process.”

“I’m very active on almost everything related to health care in the House. I may only have a couple of bills that are working their way through, but I’m involved in almost everything that the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health is engaged in. You just don’t see that input.”

The Center for Effective Lawmaking’s Volden has heard that from other members, too – and sometimes, he said, he believes it. The group’s Legislative Effectiveness Score is not about how members vote or how much federal money they bring home, he said.

“This is solely on our metric, which is, ‘What do you sponsor, how far does it move, and how important is it?’’’ he said.

“Are they working a little bit behind the scenes? We don’t capture that, but what we did find is that a lot of people who are working behind the scenes also do extraordinarily well on our measure. We have a sense that we’re tapping into what matters.”

Bucshon does claim significant legislative victories.

The 8th District congressman pointed to last month’s inclusion of language from a bill he authored in the final version of a bill to help combat the opioid crisis. The legislative compromise was passed by both houses of Congress and sent to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, as it was known, included a provision Bucshon authored that would change the Welcome to Medicare Initial Assessment to require physicians to screen for opioid use and the potential for abuse, give patients information on non-opioid alternatives and provide referrals if necessary to pain specialist physicians or other qualified practitioners.

In mid-September, the House passed the America’s Water Infrastructure Act, which included a bill Bucshon authored that would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expedite permitting for non-powered dams. Bucshon’s office also is optimistic that Trump will sign legislation including a bill he authored to provide Medicare coverage for lab tests following positive prostate cancer biopsies.

Bucshon has been among the co-sponsors – sometimes hundreds for a bill, sometimes just a few – on 39 bills that became law.

If legislation matters, so do relationships. Among Bucshon’s steadfast allies is Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakis.

Bilirakis, a Republican, is the son of Michael Bilirakis, a House member from 1983 until 2007. Outside the Energy and Commerce hearing room, the junior Bilirakis spoke of his gratitude that Bucshon has perpetuated health care reforms championed by his father.

“Larry has the knowledge. I ask him a lot of questions with regard to the medical profession,” said Bilirakis, a probate and estate planning lawyer.

Bilirakis interrupted a follow-up question to make a point about Bucshon.

“He’s a very serious legislator, and that’s what we need,” he said.

The ‘team player’

Bucshon arrived on Capitol Hill in January 2011 with his sights set on a slot on the Energy and Commerce Committee. The oldest standing legislative committee in the House, Energy and Commerce had developed the controversial health care reform package that roiled the previous year’s mid-term elections.

It is, in the parlance of Congress, an “A” committee – one of the three most critical and coveted, the others being Appropriations and the tax law-writing Ways and Means. It also has the busiest hearing schedule and the widest jurisdiction of any congressional committee, including aspects of telecommunications, healthcare, consumer protection, food and drug safety, environmental and energy policy and interstate and foreign commerce. Members deal with a complex web of competing business interests.

But Bucshon had aimed too high. He had to plod through his first four years on the Hill with less prestigious assignments before the House GOP leadership finally looked his way.

“It’s really hard to get on that (Energy and Commerce) committee,” Bucshon said. “Four other freshmen did get on, but I wasn’t one of them.”

But then Bucshon isn’t perceived as a rising star on Capitol Hill, like Susan Brooks.

Elected two years after Bucshon, the Indianapolis-area congresswoman made it to Energy and Commerce at the same time. Brooks was named chairwoman of the House Committee on Ethics after just four years in the House, giving her a seat at weekly GOP House leadership meetings. In 2014, when Brooks was still a freshman member, then-House Speaker John Boehner named her one of seven GOP members of the congressional committee investigating the 2012 U.S. Assembly attack in Benghazi.

Rich Cohen, chief author of the biennial Almanac of American Politics, said the fact Brooks is on a fast track and Bucshon isn’t doesn’t mean the 8th District congressman is being passed over.

“I think they likely are going to need a woman – frankly, if I can be crass – because these factors do come in to play,” said Cohen, a veteran journalist covering Congress. “Both parties like to have women in leadership — and Republicans have fewer women to go to, and Susan Brooks is ambitious, and she’s articulate.”

Bucshon – Cohen didn’t know how to pronounce his name – “seems to have been a low-profile congressman,” he said.

But Cohen knows one thing: House GOP leadership wouldn’t have named Bucshon to the Energy and Commerce Committee if he didn’t bring something to the table.

“When they give members an important committee assignment like Energy and Commerce or Ways and Means — first, it’s a bit of a reward for being a team player,” Cohen said. “And second, they want to be able to feel that they can trust the member going on the committee that they won’t embarrass the leadership, won’t embarrass the party – and that they’ll be inclined to go along and be a team player.”

Bucshon has been nothing if not a team player for House Republican leaders, whose political action committees have steadfastly supported him. In fact, they’ve been with him since the beginning. Members of the House GOP leadership team met with Bucshon in Washington during his first campaign for Congress in 2010, even though he had several opponents for the Republican nomination.

So it is no surprise the 8th District congressman rejects criticism by current and former Republican colleagues that GOP congressional leaders have made campaign fundraising – not legislating – the primary business of Congress. In fact, Bucshon notes with evident pride that he pays his annual dues to the National Republican Congressional Committee “every time.”

His comments are in stark contrast to Minnesota Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan, who said the Republican-controlled House's “entire legislative schedule is set around fundraising.”

The issue has been overblown, Bucshon said.

Fundraising is just part of the job, he said. Sometimes he does it at night from home. At any rate, Bucshon said, he doesn't let it interfere with official duties.

“Honestly, the job entails both official and unofficial duties. I think most members, including myself, factor into our calendar the fundraising aspect of our job,” he said.

“I may have a committee hearing in the morning, and then I may not have anything officially until votes at 3 in the afternoon. Well, I may book an hour to go make fundraising phone calls so that I don’t just sit around the office and drink coffee, you see what I'm saying?"

Hard time

Not even Bucshon questions the notion that his influence in the House will diminish if he is re-elected while Democrats win control – a likely outcome, according to The Cook Political Report.

The 8th District congressman has never been in the minority — but Walter Jones has.

Jones, a Republican Congressman from North Carolina, has been in office for nearly 24 years. He's done hard time in the minority more than once. The majority is better.

“It’s harder to get ideas up for a vote on the House floor (in the minority),” said Jones, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “On Armed Services, the majority gets to pick most of the (hearing) witnesses. They (the majority) might take two, and you get one.”

The majority decides which hearings to conduct in the first place.

“If you lose the majority, you’re definitely not going to hold as much power,” Jones said.

The best strategy for a member who is thrust into the minority, Jones said, is to try to exercise influence in policy areas where there is agreement with majority members.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus might exercise greater sway within a reduced Republican caucus and likely would still command Trump’s attention, but Bucshon is not among its roughly 30 members. The 8th District congressman still is held in high regard by Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows.

Meadows, a North Carolina representative, has a nickname for Bucshon.

“Doc’s a smart, thoughtful member,” Meadows said outside the House chamber. “Outside of that, he’s not only someone you can count on to give you intel on health care issues but certainly someone that is willing to debate the issues back and forth.”

Sitting in his Capitol Hill office, Bucshon chuckled at that. There’s nothing wrong with being called smart and thoughtful. It’s better than unglamorous and workmanlike.

"Smart and thoughtful" doesn’t get a member of Congress on TV – but Bucshon said he has no interest in that unless the discussion is substantive.

The 8th District congressman recalled a day early in his career in Congress when a national cable TV network booked him for an on-air interview about health care. But the network later abruptly canceled him in favor of a more flamboyant Republican member. Bucshon figured someone had deduced he wouldn't provide the necessary fireworks, focusing on policy instead.

It's a flattering self-portrait, but one supported by other members of Congress.

"That I was a doctor," Bucshon said when asked to explain the TV rejection. "Because I would have a substantive, knowledgeable rebuttal to what they were trying to do."

Thomas Langhorne
Courier & Press