Orrin Hatch

Orrin Hatch
United States Senator from Utah
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1977 Serving with Bob Bennett
Preceded by	Frank Moss
Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Joe Biden
Succeeded by	Patrick Leahy
In office January 20 – June 6, 2001
Preceded by	Patrick Leahy
Succeeded by	Patrick Leahy
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Patrick Leahy
Succeeded by	Arlen Specter
Chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	Harrison A. Williams
Succeeded by	Ted Kennedy
Born	March 22, 1934 (1934-03-22) (age 76) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Elaine Hatch
Residence	Salt Lake City, Utah
Alma mater	Brigham Young University University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Signature
Website	U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch

Orrin Grant Hatch (born March 22, 1934) is a Republican senator from Utah. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member Senate Judiciary Committee (depending on whether the Republicans controlled the Senate) from 1993 to 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee from 1981 to 1987, and is expected to become the top Republican on the Finance Committee in the 112th United States Congress.^[1] Hatch also serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Hatch was considered for a seat on the Supreme Court during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and his name was mentioned in the press during the George W. Bush administration as a possible replacement for either William H. Rehnquist or Sandra Day O'Connor.

Although a conservative Republican, Hatch is noted for his willingness to cross party lines to get legislation passed. He notably formed a longstanding legislative partnership with the late Edward M. Kennedy, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts.

Family

Orrin Hatch was born to Jesse Hatch and his wife Helen. His great-grandfather Jeremiah Hatch was the founder of Vernal, Utah. Hatch married his wife, the former Elaine Hansen, on August 28, 1957. They are the parents of six children.^[2]

Education

Hatch, first in his family to attend college, attended Brigham Young University and, in 1959, received a degree in History. In 1962, he received a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Law School. As a law student, he worked as a janitor, a construction worker in the Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers Union (putting plaster on walls over various kinds of lath), and as a dormitory desk attendant.

Religion

Hatch is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although he was born in Pennsylvania, his parents had been raised in Utah and he had ancestors who were members of the LDS Church in Nauvoo.

Hatch served a mission for the LDS Church in what was called the "Great Lakes States Mission" essentially covering large parts of Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Since then Hatch has served in various positions in the LDS Church including as a bishop.^[3]

Political career

For fourteen years after graduating, Hatch worked as an Attorney at law in Pittsburgh and Utah. In 1976 in his first run for public office, he was elected to the United States Senate, defeating Democrat Frank Moss, a three-term incumbent. Among other issues, Hatch criticized Moss's 18-year tenure in the Senate, saying that many Senators, including Moss, had lost touch with their constituents. Ironically, Hatch surpassed Moss' Senate tenure in 1995, having served for nearly double that period of time as of 2009. Hatch won his first election by an unexpectedly wide nine-point margin. He later defeated Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson by 17 points in his reelection bid in 1982. He hasn't faced substantive opposition since, and has been reelected four times. He is the longest-serving Senator in Utah history, eclipsing previous record-holder Reed Smoot in 2007.^[4]

2000 presidential campaign

In 2000, Hatch made a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, losing to Texas Governor George W. Bush. During the first Republican debate, Hatch made web usability a campaign issue, a first for a presidential candidate. He claimed his website was more user-friendly than Bush's.

Supreme Court

Hatch has long expressed interest in serving on the US Supreme Court. He was reportedly on Ronald Reagan's short list of candidates to succeed Lewis F. Powell, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court, but was passed over at least in part because of the Ineligibility Clause.^[5] Despite that, he vocally supported Robert Bork, who was chosen instead.^[6] After Bork's and Douglas H. Ginsburg's nominations to the seat faltered, Anthony Kennedy was confirmed to fill the vacancy.

Hatch was also mentioned as a possible nominee after George W. Bush became president. But after the appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, a potential appointment became very unlikely. Barack Obama's election and Hatch's age make him an unlikely Supreme Court nominee.

Political positions

Nuclear issues

Senator Orrin Hatch holds a press conference with Congressman Wayne Owens in March, 1989 as part of their successful charge to win passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) which provides for ongoing compensation to Southern Utahns and others damaged by nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s.

During Hatch's first year in the Senate in 1977, reporter Gordon Eliot White of the Deseret News published the first of what would be a lengthy series of articles detailing government malfeasance in atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site. Over the next 13 years White's articles detailed how the government determined to proceed with the tests, and with mining and refining, without adequate safeguards for innocent citizens whose health would be damaged. Though Hatch feared an investigation would endanger the nation's nuclear deterrence versus the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, by 1979 he was pushing for hearings on the issue before the Senate Labor Committee. Hatch prevailed on Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy to hold field hearings in Utah in 1980. At the end of 1980, Hatch was positioned to chair the committee himself.

By 1984, Hatch had held a dozen hearings, passed legislation requiring scientific investigation of the injuries and had enlisted the aid of the National Science Foundation and National Cancer Institute, but still could not muster the votes to get a bill. When a vote was obtained in the Senate in 1985, it failed. Hatch's ferreting discovered a clause to pay at least $100 million to injured residents of Marshall Islands similarly to Utah citizens, and Hatch took the treaty hostage. His hold on consideration of the treaty eventually got agreement from the Reagan administration to agree not to oppose radiation compensation for Utah citizens, but it still took another five years to get the bill through. The Radiation Compensation Act of 1990 provided compensation for citizens injured by radioactive fallout from the tests.

Housing

In 1980, Hatch spoke in favor of rolling back provisions of the Fair Housing Act. Acting on his motion in 1988, Congress eventually voted to weaken the ability of plaintiffs to prosecute cases of discriminatory treatment in housing. At the time, the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments were being debated, he introduced a bill endorsed by the National Association of Realtors to severely limit who can file anti-discrimination suits and to make the proceedings a private affair.

Religious Freedom

Hatch was the main author of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act along with Ted Kennedy.^[7]

Civil Liberties and Terrorism

In 1995 Hatch was the leading figure behind the senate's anti-terrorism bill, to a large extent a response to the Oklahoma City Bombing. The bill was attacked by some felt it made it too hard to enforce the ban on designated terrorist groups raising funds. The bill also increased the limits on habeus corpus in terror cases.^[8]

Intellectual property

Hatch caused an overnight controversy on June 17, 2003 by proposing that copyright owners should be able to destroy the computer equipment and information of those suspected of copyright infringement, including file sharing. In the face of criticism, especially from technology and privacy advocates, Hatch withdrew his suggestion days later, after it was discovered that Sen. Hatch's official website was using an unlicensed JavaScript menu from United Kingdom based software developer Milonic Solutions. Milonic founder Andy Woolley stated that "We've had no contact with them. They are in breach of our licensing terms." Shortly after the publication of that story in Wired magazine, the company who runs Hatch's website contacted Milonic to start registration.^[9]

One year later, he proposed the controversial INDUCE Act that attempted to make illegal all tools that could be used for copyright infringement. According to many critics, this act would effectively outlaw the Internet and personal computers, giving unprecedented legal leverage to media companies.

Other issues

Hatch was one of the architects and advocates of the expansion of H-1b visas and has generally been an advocate of a looser immigration policy, which upsets most members of his delegation in Utah. He also proposed the somewhat controversial DREAM Act, which would grant state-subsidized higher education to illegal immigrants.

A vocal supporter of stem cell research, Hatch was one of 58 senators who signed a letter directed to President George W. Bush, requesting the relaxing of federal restrictions on stem cell research.

He has also pushed legislation for the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would amend Article 2, Section I, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. Under this amendment it would allow anyone who has been a US citizen for twenty years to seek both the presidency and vice-presidency.

Hatch was also a strong supporter of Jay Bybee during Bybee's confirmation hearings for a US Federal judgeship stating "I've seen a lot of people around and a lot of judges and I don't know of anybody who has any greater qualifications or any greater ability in the law than you have".^[10] In 2006 Hatch gave a controversial speech to the Utah Senate, stating that terrorists across the world were "waiting for the Democrats here to take control, let things cool off and then strike again."^[11]

In 2010 Hatch helped Republican Senator Jim Bunning defeat an unemployment extension via filibuster, possibly leaving up to 900,000 Americans without any type of unemployment benefits. He has also introduced an amendment to the 2010 Jobs bill requiring recipients of unemployment be drug tested.^[12]

Committee assignments

• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care (Ranking Minority Member)
  • Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-Term Growth
  • Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights (Ranking Minority Member)
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
  • Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security
• Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
  • Subcommittee on Children and Families
  • Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
• Select Committee on Intelligence
• Special Committee on Aging
• Joint Committee on Taxation
• Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles against Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. (Vice Chair)^[13]

The forthcoming retirement of Senator Judd Gregg is expected to create a domino effect among high profile Republicans: Senator Jeff Sessions will take his spot as Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, so Senator Chuck Grassley will take his spot on the Judiciary Committee, and Hatch will take the top Republican spot on the Finance Committee.

Controversies

Polygamy

In 1998, Hatch, a descendant of polygamists, defended polygamy in a taped interview, saying that the Constitution was "ambiguous" on the issue.^[14] He later stated that the Constitution was not ambiguous, that polygamy should remain illegal, and that polygamy was against the teachings of his church.^[15]

Lobbying ties

Hatch's son Scott is a named partner and registered lobbyist at Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC, a Washington lobbying firm. The firm was formed in 2001; the other two partners are Jack Martin, a staff aide to Senator Hatch for six years, and H. Laird Walker, who has been described as a close associate of the senator's.^[16] In March 2003, the Los Angeles Times quoted Senator Hatch as saying that the firm was formed with his "personal encouragement" and that he saw no conflict of interest in championing issues that helped his son's clients.^[17]

Hatch has legislated for dietary supplements to be governed outside of the realm of drugs and food additives. Utah, his constituency, is considered the "Silicon Valley" of the supplement industry. When the FDA was reviewing the adverse effects of ephedra, Hatch defended the supplement industry. At the time, Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC were being paid, by companies with interests in ephedra manufacturing, for lobbying Congress.^[17]

In March 2009, the Washington Times reported that the pharmaceutical industry, which has "long has benefited from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch's legislative efforts", had previously undisclosed connections to Hatch. Five pharmaceutical companies and the industry's main lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), wrote checks in 2007 totaling more than $170,000 to the Utah Families Foundation, a tax-exempt charitable foundation which Hatch helped start in the 1990s and had vigorously supported since. Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC was paid $120,000 by PhRMA in 2007 to lobby Congress on pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration legislation.^[16]

Hatch was involved in the freeing of producer Dallas Austin from Dubai following a conviction for drug possession.^[18]

Musical career and film appearance

Orrin Hatch plays the piano, violin and organ. Fueled by his interest in poetry, Orrin has written songs for many. (On the advice of U2 front-man Bono, he has put several of the songs under a pen name, "because it's you, man.") He co-authored "Everything And More," sung by Billy Gilman. In addition to his job as a United States Senator, Mr. Hatch has earned over $65,000 as an LDS music recording artist.

Hatch also has a history in arts management. In the early 1970s he was the band manager for a Mormon-themed folk group called the Free Agency. The Free Agency was made up of members of an earlier Mormon group called the Sons of Mosiah, that was formed when guitarist David Zandonatti and vocalist Ron McNeeley relocated to Utah after their San Francisco based psychedelic group Tripsichord music box disbanded in 1971.

Rock musician Frank Zappa composed a guitar instrumental entitled "Orrin Hatch On Skis," which appears on his album, Guitar (1988).

Hatch's song "Heal Our Land" was performed at George W. Bush's January 2005 inauguration.^[19]

Hatch has even written works that count as hymns, often working with Janice Kapp Perry.^[20]

Hatch appeared as himself in Steven Soderbegh's Oscar-winning drama Traffic (2000), in a brief cameo in a scene set during a Washington D.C. cocktail party.^[21]

Soderbergh later featured one of Hatch's songs, Souls Along The Way, in his film Ocean's 12 as background music for a scene in Hatch's home state Utah.^[22]

In 2009, at the request of The Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, Hatch authored the lyrics to "Eight Days of Hanukkah",^[23] described by Goldberg as "a hip hop Hannukah song written by the senior senator from Utah."

Other positions

Hatch serves as a member of the board of directors of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.^[24]

Hatch has also benefited Jews in more tangible ways, such as giving Benny Zippel, the Italian immigrant who was serving as the head of the Chabab-Lubavicher Synagogue in Utah a letter to send to the Immigration and Naturalization Services pack in 1992 to recommend he be given permanent residence status as a rabbi in Utah. This was not enough, and it took Gordon B. Hinckley linking Zippel up with lawyer Oscar McConkie III to prevent his loss of legal status in the US.^[25]

Writing

In 2002, Hatch's autobiography Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator was published by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. In this book, Hatch describes the challenges of balancing home and professional life as a Senator, and recounts anecdotes from his campaign experience and some of his higher-profile assignments in the Senate, such as the Confirmation Hearings of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Senator Hatch also is the author of several law review articles.

Electoral history

• United States Senate election in Utah, 2006
  • Orrin Hatch (R) (inc.), 62%
  • Pete Ashdown (D), 31%

• United States Senate election in Utah, 2000
  • Orrin Hatch (R) (inc.), 66%
  • Scott Howell (D), 31%

• 1994 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Orrin Hatch (R) (inc.), 69%
  • Pat Shea (D), 28%

• 1988 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Orrin Hatch (R) (inc.), 67%
  • Brian Moss (D), 32%

• 1982 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Orrin Hatch (R) (inc.), 58%
  • Ted Wilson (D), 41%

• 1976 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Orrin Hatch (R), 54%
  • Frank Moss (D) (inc.), 45%

See also

• Hatch-Waxman Act
• Internet Community Ports Act
• Pirate Act

References

External links

• United States Senator Orrin Hatch U.S. Senate site
• Twitter: Orrin Hatch
• Orrin Hatch for U.S. Senate Official campaign Site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• New York Times — Orrin G. Hatch News collected news and commentary
• mormoncentury.org — Why Hatch supported stem cell research
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Orrin G. Hatch profile
• Radiation Compensation Act of 1990, in the Congressional Record
• The Music of Orrin Hatch
• Orrin Hatch, Healthcare Reform's Stealth Champion, The New Republic

United States Senators from Utah Class 1 Cannon • Kearns • Sutherland • King • Murdock • Watkins • Moss • Hatch Class 3 Brown • Rawlins • Smoot • Thomas • W. Bennett • Garn • R. Bennett • Lee (elect)

Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chase • Crittenden • Burrill • Smith • Van Buren • Berrien • Rowan • Marcy • Wilkins • Clayton • Grundy • Wall • Berrien • Ashley • Butler • Bayard • Trumbull • Edmunds • Thurman • Edmunds • Hoar • Pugh • Hoar • Platt • Clark • Culberson • Nelson • Brandegee • Cummins • Norris • Ashurst • Van Nuys • McCarran • Wiley • McCarran • Langer • Kilgore • Eastland • Kennedy • Thurmond • Biden • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Specter • Leahy