U.S. Senate tenure
and Senator
Mike Lee in 2017 Hatch took office as a U.S. senator on January 3, 1977. He chaired the
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987. He also served as chair of the
Senate Judiciary Committee and the
Senate Finance Committee. In September 1989, Hatch was one of nine Republican senators appointed by Senate Republican Leader
Bob Dole to negotiate a dispute with Democrats over the financing of President George HW Bush's anti-drug plan that called for spending $7.8 billion by the following year as part of the president's efforts to address narcotics nationwide and abroad. Hatch long expressed interest in serving on the
United States Supreme Court. It was reported that he was on
Ronald Reagan's short list of candidates to succeed
Lewis F. Powell Jr. on the Supreme Court, but was passed over at least in part because of the
Ineligibility Clause. Despite that, he vocally supported
Robert Bork, who was nominated for the vacancy instead. Hatch "worked across the aisle to pass landmark legislation, including the
Americans with Disabilities Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program". During the 1991 confirmation hearings regarding the Supreme Court nomination of
Clarence Thomas, Hatch "famously defended Thomas ... by reading aloud from
The Exorcist to suggest
Anita Hill lifted details of her sexual harassment allegations from the horror book". On January 3, 2015, after the
114th United States Congress was sworn in, Hatch became
President pro tempore of the Senate. Hatch was absent from the 2017 Inauguration Day festivities. At the request of President-elect Donald Trump, he agreed to serve as
designated survivor during the inauguration and was kept at a secure, undisclosed location. On December 25, 2017,
The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial entitled "Why Orrin Hatch is Utahn of the Year". The newspaper described its criteria for the designation as "Utahn of the Year" as "the Utahn who, over the past 12 months, has done the most. Has made the most news. Has had the biggest impact. For good or for ill." The editorial criticized Hatch for his role in the size reduction of the
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the passage of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and accused him of lacking integrity. Hatch announced on January 2, 2018, that he would retire from the Senate instead of seeking
re-election that November. Hatch retired from the Senate on January 3, 2019, At the time of his retirement announcement, he was the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Utah history (having eclipsed previous record-holder
Reed Smoot in 2007), the longest-serving Republican U.S. Senator in the history of Congress,
Political positions and votes Abortion Hatch was strongly opposed to
abortion and is the author of the
Hatch Amendment proposed to the
U.S. Constitution, which states that there is no constitutional right to abortion and would empower the states to restrict abortion as they see fit.
Anti-terrorism following the
September 11 attacks. 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. Elements of the bill were criticised by the
Anti-Defamation League and
American Jewish Committee on civil liberties grounds, especially the new limits imposed on
habeas corpus in capital cases. As a senior member of the
Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Hatch was also instrumental in the 2008
extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He said, "This bipartisan bill will help defeat terrorism and keep America safe. No, the legislation is not perfect, but it ensures that the increased expansion of the judiciary into foreign intelligence gathering doesn't unnecessarily hamper our intelligence community."
Bailouts Hatch voted in favor of the
2008 legislation that established the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In 2011, Hatch said that he "probably made a mistake voting for it", and also claimed "at the time, we were in real trouble and it looked like we were ready for a
depression. I believe we would have gone into a depression." He voted against the renewal of TARP in 2009, and the renewal was voted down by 10 votes in the Senate. Hatch voted in favor of the
Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The bill authorized $300 billion to guarantee mortgages and restore confidence in
Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac.
Balanced budget amendment Hatch was a longtime advocate of amending the
United States Constitution to require that total spending of the federal government for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts. During his time in the Senate, Hatch sponsored a balanced budget amendment 17 times—4 times as lead sponsor and 13 times as a co-sponsor. Hatch's proposed amendment passed the House of Representatives in 1997, but failed to pass the Senate by the required two-thirds majority by one vote to move on the states for ratification.
Bank of Credit and Commerce International In January 1990, the federal judge in a case against the
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) accepted a 1989 plea bargain offered to the bank by the
U.S. Department of Justice. The bank was to pay $15 million in fines and only admit that it had laundered drug money. Afterward, Hatch presented an impassioned defense of the bank in a speech on the Senate floor. It had been largely written for him by the bank's attorney
Robert Altman. Hatch said, "The case arose from the conduct of a small number of B.C.C.I.'s more than 14,000 employees." Since 1989, Hatch and his aide, Michael Pillsbury, had been involved in efforts to counter the negative publicity that surrounded the bank. Hatch had also solicited the bank to approve a $10 million loan to a close friend,
Monzer Hourani. In 1991, B.C.C.I. was shut down after regulators accused it of one of the biggest international financial frauds in history. Law enforcement officials accused the bank of making bribes throughout the third world to arrange government deposits.
Clark Clifford, a former presidential advisor and Defense Secretary, and Altman, his law partner, were charged with taking bribes from B.C.C.I., in exchange for concealing its illegal ownership of First American Bankshares, a Washington holding company which Clifford chaired. Both had denied the charges, which were filed in New York State and Federal courts. In 1992, in a "Report to the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate", prepared by committee members, U.S. Senators
John Kerry (D-MA) and
Hank Brown (R-CO), noted that a key strategy of "BCCI's successful secret acquisitions of U.S. banks in the face of regulatory suspicion was its aggressive use of a series of prominent Americans," Clifford amongst them. The relationship with Hourani included the receipt of campaign contributions laundered through his employees, for which Hourani was fined $10,000, as well as his purchase of 1,200 CDs of Hatch's songs, for which Hatch received $3 to $7 each, and the management of a blind trust for Hatch. These led to a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, by which Hatch was eventually cleared.
Health care reform Hatch opposed President
Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the
Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Hatch argued that the insurance mandate found in the legislation was not in the category that can be covered by the
interstate commerce clause since it regulates the decision to engage in commercial activity rather than regulating the activity itself. He therefore regarded the Act as unconstitutional. NPR called Hatch a "flip-flopper" on this issue since in 1993 Hatch co-sponsored a bill along with 19 other Senate Republicans that included an individual insurance mandate as a means to combat healthcare legislation proposed by New York Senator
Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Hatch said that Obamacare supporters were "the stupidest, dumbass people I've ever met". Hatch was one of the first senators to suggest that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and promised to work on dismantling it when he becomes the Finance Committee Chairman. Hatch was part of the group of 13 senators drafting the
Senate version of the
AHCA behind closed doors. , Dr.
C. Everett Koop (far right), Elizabeth Koop (left), and HHS Secretary
Richard Schweiker (right) (November 16, 1981) In 2003, Hatch supported the
Medicare prescription drug benefit plan known as
Medicare Part D. Responding to criticism of the legislation during the 2009 debate on health care reform, Hatch said that in 2003 "it was standard practice not to pay for things" and that although there was concern at the time about increasing the deficit, supporting the bill was justified because it "has done a lot of good". On March 25, 2014, Hatch cosponsored the
Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2014 in the Senate. The bill that would amend the
Public Health Service Act to
reauthorize the
Emergency Medical Services for Children Program through FY2019. The bill would authorize
appropriations of about $20 million in 2015 and $101 million over the 2015–2019 period. Hatch argued that "children require specialized medical care, and that specialized care comes with unique challenges. The EMSC program helps ensure that some of our country's most vulnerable have access to the care they need, and I've been proud to support it all these years."
Immigration Hatch was one of the architects and advocates of the expansion of
H-1B visas and has generally been an advocate of tougher enforcement immigration policy including voting for 1,500 new law enforcement agents to patrol the United States' borders. His 2010 Immigration Bill titled Strengthening Our Commitment to Legal Immigration and America's Security Act has received the support of the
Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). He also proposed the
DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, who were children when their parents came to the United States. Hatch critiqued President
Donald Trump's 2017
executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from seven Muslim countries until better screening methods are devised. He reflected on his own family's immigration history and described the order as placing "unnecessary burdens" on families.
Judicial nominations in 2005 As ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch fought hard to get conservative judges nominated to the Supreme Court. He took a leading role in the Senate confirmation hearings of
Clarence Thomas in October 1991. He was also a strong supporter of
Jay Bybee during Bybee's confirmation hearings for a seat on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 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." Nevertheless, in 1993, Hatch recommended
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom he knew personally, to President
Bill Clinton to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, even as he knew she was a political liberal. Clinton had not previously considered Ginsburg, and Hatch, as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, assured him that a Ginsburg confirmation would go smoothly. Ginsburg was ultimately confirmed 96–3 in the Senate. With regards to the
Senate filibuster being used to stall President Barack Obama's
judicial appointments, Hatch voted against the
November 2013 reforms, which eliminated the use of the filibuster on executive branch nominees and judicial nominees other than to the Supreme Court. In September 2014, Hatch argued that the filibuster should be restored, saying: "We should get it back to where it was. You can see the destruction that has happened around here." In November 2014, after the Republicans retook control of the Senate following the
2014 elections, Hatch wrote in
The Wall Street Journal that "if Republicans re-establish the judicial-nomination filibuster, it would remain in place only until the moment that a new Democratic majority decided that discarding the rule again would be useful" and called for "the next Republican president to counteract President Obama's aggressive efforts to stack the federal courts in favor of his party's ideological agenda" by nominating conservative judges. As an opponent of the confirmation of
Merrick Garland, Hatch submitted to the
Deseret News an opinion piece stating that, after meeting with Garland, his opinion on blocking Garland had not changed; the piece was published prior to Hatch's meeting with Garland. On March 13, 2016, regarding the nomination of Supreme Court candidates by Obama, Hatch stated "a number of factors have led me to conclude that under current circumstances the Senate should defer the confirmation process until the next president is sworn in."
Intellectual property Hatch was long a proponent of expanding
intellectual property rights and in 1997 introduced the Senate version of the
Copyright Term Extension Act. Hatch believed that intellectual property laws should, in general, more closely mirror real property laws, and offer greater protections to authors and creators. 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 that runs Hatch's website contacted Milonic to start registration. On September 20, 2010, Hatch once again attempted to outlaw websites which could be used for trademark and copyright infringement through the
Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). This bill would authorize the
United States Department of Justice to blacklist and censor all websites that the department deemed to be dedicated to "infringing activities".
LGBT rights The Salt Lake Tribune reported that in 1977, Hatch told students from the
University of Utah, "I wouldn't want to see
homosexuals teaching school anymore than I'd want to see members of the
American Nazi Party teaching school." Hatch supported the
Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. In 2012, Hatch recommended and supported District Court Judge
Robert Shelby, a Barack Obama appointee, though Utah Senator
Mike Lee voted against him in the Judiciary Committee. In 2013 Shelby overturned Utah's ballot Amendment 3, which constitutionally defined marriage as between a man and a woman. In April 2013, Hatch stated that he viewed
same-sex marriage as "undermining the very basis of marital law", but declined to support a
Federal Marriage Amendment and endorsed same-sex couples' right to form a
civil union, stating that the law should "give gay people the same rights as married people". Later that same year, Hatch voted in favor of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation creating protected classes for those identifying as gay, lesbian,
bisexual or
transgender. In 2018, Hatch "honored
Pride" by giving a speech in support of programs to help and serve LGBT youth.
Nuclear testing in March 1989 as part of their successful charge to win passage of the
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). 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 enlisted the aid of the
National Science Foundation and
National Cancer Institute, but still could not muster the votes to get a bill passed. When a vote was obtained in the Senate in 1985 (as an amendment to a bill to compensate affected
Pacific Islanders for nuclear tests in the 1950s), it failed by a handful of votes. Hatch discovered a clause in the proposed Treaty of Peace and Friendship with
Kiribati and
Tuvalu to pay at least $100 million to residents of the
Marshall Islands for injuries similar to those of Utahns, 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 Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 provided compensation for citizens injured by radioactive fallout from the tests. a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when
START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.
Opioid crisis Hatch introduced the
Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, narrowing the broad authority of the
DEA to suspend drug "manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers". Hatch stated the bill was also written to protect patients from disruptions in the production and delivery of their
prescription drugs, saying that ..."The fact that prescription drugs can be abused should not prevent patients from receiving the medications they need. This bill takes a balanced approach to the problem of prescription drug abuse by clarifying penalties for manufacturing or dispensing outside approved procedures while helping to ensure that supply chains to legitimate users remain intact". The bill passed the Senate unanimously and
Tom Marino passed a version of the bill in the House. It was then signed by President Barack Obama. Critics of the bill claim the new law fuels the opioid crisis by limiting the DEA's ability to halt production and distribution by predatory drug companies. DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney II wrote in the
Marquette Law Review that ..."At a time when, by all accounts, opioid abuse, addiction and deaths were increasing markedly, this new law imposed a dramatic diminution of the agency's authority. It is now all but logically impossible for the DEA to suspend a drug company's operations for failing to comply with federal law." Donald Trump's Attorney General
Jeff Sessions said he was "dubious" about the law when it passed and joined 44 state attorneys general calling for "repeal or amendment of the law to restore some of the DEA's authority." Jim Geldhof, a former DEA program manager who spent 43 years with the DEA called the bill "outrageous. It basically takes any kind of action DEA was going to do with a distributor or manufacturer as far as an immediate suspension off the table. And then the other part of that really infuriates me is that corrective action plan." Mulrooney compared the corrective action plan to one that would "allow bank robbers to round up and return inkstained money and agree not to rob any more banks—all before any of those wrongdoers actually admit fault and without any consequence that might deter such behavior in the future." Hatch responded to a
Washington Post and
60 Minutes investigation into the bill by writing a
Washington Post opinion article calling the investigation "misleading" and asking to "leave conspiracy theories to
Netflix". Senator
Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-sponsor of the senate bill, also defended the bill: "This bill was drafted in consultation with the DEA to offer better guidance for companies working to safely and responsibly supply prescription drugs to pharmacies, and to promote better communication and certainty between companies and regulators." Republican
Pat Toomey expressed doubts that a conspiracy existed, but still suggested amending the bill: "I'm a little surprised that it passed unanimously in both houses, was signed by President Obama and got no opposition from the DEA at the time. That's not the way controversial legislation usually ends up, but hey, if there's problems, then we ought to revisit them." Hatch received $177,000 in donations from the drug industry while pushing the bill through and has received $2,178,863 from the Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industry from 1989 to 2014 according to required filings by the
Federal Election Commission.
Religious freedom Hatch was the main author of the
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protected all religions' right to build facilities on private property. In 2010, Hatch defended the right of a private organization to build a mosque on private property in
downtown Manhattan, citing this law and defense of the freedom of religion.
Presidential Medal of Freedom On November 16, 2018, President
Donald Trump awarded Hatch the highest civilian honor, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Other issues Hatch sponsored the
Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which "all but eliminated government regulation of the dietary and herbal supplements industry." The bill has resulted in the unregulated sale of supplements with misleading labeling that have no beneficial health effects at all, or may have adverse health effects. It was intended to enable the marketing of
quack medicine. In 1999, Hatch called for a federal probe into manufacturers of
violent video games, and proposed making the existing voluntary rating system for video games (
ESRB) mandatory by federal law. Hatch pushed legislation for the
Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would amend Article 2, Section I, Clause 5 of the
United States Constitution. This amendment would allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for twenty years to seek the presidency or vice-presidency. 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 embryonic stem cell research. In 2010, Hatch's bill was reauthorized which allowed stem cells from
umbilical cords to be used to find treatment options. In June 2013, Hatch commented on a
G8 proposal that tax authorities in the world's largest economies openly share information among themselves in order to fight
tax evasion. The proposal has strong suggestions about ways to make companies more transparent and governments more accountable for their tax policies. Hatch stated that transparency is always a good thing, but he would like to see a bill before giving any support. In 2017, Hatch was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging the President to have the United States withdraw from the
Paris Agreement. According to
OpenSecrets, Hatch received over $470,000 from oil, gas, and coal interests from 2012 on. In 2018, over the Judge
Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court controversy, Hatch said that it did not matter even if Kavanaugh did what his accusers alleged was true. Hatch said, "If that was true, I think it would be hard for senators to not consider who the judge is today. That's the issue. Is this judge a really good man? And he is. And by any measure he is." Hatch voted for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999, saying "committing crimes of moral turpitude such as perjury and obstruction of justice go to the heart of qualification for public office ... This great nation can tolerate a president who makes mistakes. But it cannot tolerate one who makes a mistake and then breaks the law to cover it up. Any other citizen would be prosecuted for these crimes." In 2018, in the wake of court filings that implicated President Trump in campaign finance violations and in attempting to buy the silence of women who alleged affairs with Trump, Hatch said, "I don't care, all I can say is he's doing a good job as president."
Committee assignments •
Committee on Finance (Chairman) • As Chairman of the full committee, Hatch may serve as an
ex officio member of all subcommittees of which he was not already a full member. •
Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness •
Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy •
Committee on the Judiciary •
Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights •
Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs •
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security •
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions •
Joint Committee on Taxation •
Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles against Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. (Vice Chair)
Caucus memberships •
Afterschool Caucuses Lobbying ties Hatch's son Scott Hatch was formerly a partner and registered lobbyist at Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm. The firm was formed in 2001 with Jack Martin, a staff aide to Hatch for six years, and H. Laird Walker, described as a close associate of the senator. In March 2003, the
Los Angeles Times reported that the firm was formed with Hatch's personal encouragement and that he saw no conflict of interest in working on issues that involved his son's clients. In 2009,
The Washington Times reported that Hatch said "My son, Scott, does not lobby me or anyone in my office". In March 2009,
The Washington Times reported that the pharmaceutical industry, which has benefited from Hatch's legislative efforts, had previously unreported connections to Hatch. In 2007, five pharmaceutical companies and the industry's main trade association,
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), donated $172,500 to the
Utah Families Foundation—a charitable foundation which Hatch helped start in the 1990s and continued to support. Walker, Martin & Hatch LLC was paid $120,000 by PhRMA in 2007 to lobby Congress on pending
U.S. Food and Drug Administration legislation. Hatch and his son also had close ties to the dietary supplement industry, which Hatch deregulated in 1994.
Electoral history == Personal life ==