James Tozzi

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Jim Tozzi and his partner (ex Republican politician/bureaucrat), Thorne G Auchter, ran one of the more successful lobbying operations in Washington. They functioned behind a pair of companies, known as Federal Focus and Multinational Business Services, together with two so-called think-tanks, the Institute for Regulatory Policy and the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness. The main client of these partners was the tobacco industry, in particular Philip Morris.

One of the more successful of their ploys, was to use the non-profit Federal Focus as a service company to support other lobbyists and public relations operations in exchange for access to their favourite politicians. If the lobbyist was mounting a major social function with inviting Congressmen, Senators, or political party leaders or influence peddlers, Federal Focus would provide free entertainment (inevitably a trad. jazz band). Federal Focus made a tax-loss, while the quid pro quo was that Tozzi and Auchter were able to use these function to lobby on behalf of their own clients.

Biography

James J. Tozzi was born in ±1938 and earned a PhD in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Florida. After spending some time in New Orleans he realized he would never make his fortune playing jazz (trumpet) and moved to Washington DC. In 1964 he joined the Office of the Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense, working on budget and strategic response issues.

In 1972 he transfered to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and quickly rose to the position of Deputy Administrator during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. After the restructuring of the OMB, Tozzi came to direct the OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where he became the gatekeeper for virtually all proposed regulations dealing with public health and safety. He was still Deputy Administrator of OMB when he resigned in 1983 at age 45 to begin working as a lobbyist.

According to the Washington Post, Tozzi was effectively in charge of OMB in the 1980s when evidence emerged that giving aspirin to children with flu symptoms increased the risk of Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal complication. A federal health agency recommended legislation to enforce warnings on aspirin containers, but Tozzi took the position that the evidence was not adequate. Almost 200 children died of Reye's disease in the following years before activists could persuade Congress to enforce labelling. {Note: the syndrome is now extremely rare.] [1](See Tozzi response below)

In these early years of the 1980s (1981-85), his future partner, Thorne G Auchter, was the Assistant Secretary for Labor at the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. The OSHA also regulated smoking in workplaces, along with threats arising from other workplace pollutants. After leaving the OSHA he and Auchter established Federal Focus in 1986, which received funding from Philip Morris.[1]

Auchter and Tozzi's Federal Focus, was a 501(c)(3)}non-profit organization. They also began to work closely with George L. Carlo who ran similar operations for the tobacco industry and for Dow Chemicals and other industry sectors with health problems. Auchter was also a partner in Carlo's Health and Environmental Sciences.[2]

At the end of 1991 Auchter also created the Institute for Regulatory Policy (IRP) as a subsidiary of Federal Focus, and James Tozzi changed his own focus to another subsidiary, Multinational Business Services (MBS) which they founded around 1992. [3] The tobacco industry's "EPA Watch" newsletter of May 15, 1992 mentioned Jim Tozzi as the "director of the Washington-based Multinational Business Services Inc. (MBS)". [4] By then, Tozzi and Auchter were fully involved in tobacco-support activities for Philip Morris.

Where are they now

1992 Tozzi has been a member of the Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) since 1992 and currently serves as chairman of the International/Energy Workgroup. The EFAB provides advice to the Administrator and Program Offices of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on "how to pay" questions for environmental protection.

1996 In 1996 Jim Tozzi, James MacRea and possibly also Thorne Auchter founded the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) [5] [6] of which Tozzi and MacRea are still a "Member of the Advisory Board". [7]

2001 Tozzi was a major behind-the-scenes architect of the Data Quality Act (DQA) which he helped to become law in 2001.

2002 Thw 990 tax form this year for the non-profit Federal Focus (the last available on GuideStar) has four people listed as managers: Jim J. Tozzi (director), Barbara Tozzi (treasurer), William Kelly (secretary), and James Tang (vice president). [8] Federal Focus still uses the same address in Washington that was also used for MBS.[9] Tozzi, who played the cornet since age 7, still seems to use the Federal Focus Jazz Band as the distinguishing feature of his lobby operations. He plays for disadvantage children.

Tozzi Responds to Reye charge

Tozzi disputes the Post Article on Reye's Syndrome (Source pgs. 305 & 309, Courting Change, a book published by the Public Citizen Litigation Group) He maintains:

The Reyes Syndrome Rule (on labelling) was withdrawn from the OMB's review by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), so the assertion that Jim Tozzi rejected the proposed Reyes Syndrome labeling is completely inaccurate. The facts are, as demonstrated in the record, as follows:

1. Sept 20 1982 The Secretary of HHS sent a proposed labeling regulation to OMB.
2. Nov 8 1982 The American Academy of Pediatrics announces "Labeling aspirin-containing preparations as contraindicted in the treatment of influenza or chicken pox should be delayed until more conclusive evidence of the association of aspirin administration and Reye's Syndrome is shown by further investigation."
3. Nov 18 1982 The Secretary of HHS withdrew the rule from OMB review.

The record clearly demonstrates that Tozzi did not delay the implementation of the review for years.

Documents and Timeline

A search of the tobacco archives reveals 1013 documents which have both of the terms "Multinational Business Services" and "Tozzi" [10] search for terms.

1992 Oct 27 Tozzi is trying to influence the EPA's Risk Assessment of Second-hand smoke, by attacking the standards and techniques being used by the scientist. He especially attacks the use of meta-analysis (a way of combining numerous similar studies) [11]

1992 Dec 17 FDA response to a letter from Jim Tozzi of Multinational Business Services on behalf of the tobacco industry. He has cited two lung cancer studies (Stockwell and Soronson) which he maintains don't support the dangers of passive smoking.[12]

1995 Mar 31 Auchter contract with Philip Morris. [13]

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Institute for Regulatory Policy
• Smoking as a civic duty

Related Links

• "How Big Tobacco Defines Wireless and EMF Health Debates", Microwave News, November 2001
• "Environmental Financial Advisory Board Newsletter: March 2002", Environmental Protection Agency,
• "Jim Tozzi, Center for Regulatory Effectiveness", FederalTimes.com, November 11, 2002
• "Jim Tozzi: On Jazz And OMB", The Federal Paper, November 18, 2002
• "Steven J. Milloy: The “Junkman” Exposed", Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, December 2003
• Chris Mooney , "Paralysis by Analysis, Jim Tozzi's regulation to end all regulation", Washington Monthly, May 2004
• Rick Weiss, "'Data Quality' Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation," Washington Post, August 16, 2004.
• Eric Bailey, "Activist Enlists Unlikely Ally in Bid to Legalize Pot," Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2005.

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