Thomas rules out lobbying career

Retiring House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) categorically ruled out beginning a career as a lobbyist or taking a job with the Bush administration.

“My government career, if you want to call it that, is over,” Thomas remarked from behind a lectern in the committee’s stately hearing room. Thomas has chaired the panel since 1995 and will conclude his 14th term in the House on Jan. 2.

“What I’m going to do, I haven’t figured out yet,” Thomas emphasized, repeating his view that it would have been improper to seek a new job while overseeing the tax, trade and healthcare bills that passed last week.

Thomas said that whatever he chooses to do next would involve working closely with lawmakers.

Ever the legislator, Thomas also introduced a bill yesterday to set standards for the amount of charity care hospitals have to provide to be exempt from taxation, revisiting for the final time what was for him a perennial issue. “It’s my hope that this bill might serve as a discussion point in Congress,” he said in a written statement.