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 EffectivenessScore 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 sensethat 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 – sometimeshundreds 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 Indianapolisarea 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 committeeassignment like Energy and Commerce or Ways andMeans — 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.”