The congressman from the 26th District is Michael Burgess, a conservative Republican physician first elected in 2002 and a spokesman for House Republicans on health care issues. Read More
The congressman from the 26th District is Michael Burgess, a conservative Republican physician first elected in 2002 and a spokesman for House Republicans on health care issues.
Burgess grew up in Denton County, the son of a physician, and graduated from the University of North Texas and the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He trained at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and set up an obstetrics-gynecology practice in Lewisville. After 21 years in practice, Burgess decided to run for Congress, his first bid for elective office. When House Majority Leader Dick Armey announced in December 2001 that he would not run again, there was no doubt that a Republican would succeed him. But almost no one expected that the winner would be political novice Burgess. The widespread expectation was that the winner would be the majority leader’s son, Scott Armey, 32, a former Denton County judge.
In the primary, Armey outspent Burgess by more than 6-to-1. But turnout was light—only 25,000 people out of 456,000 voting-age residents took part. There were no Republican primary contests at the top of the ticket, and there didn’t seem to be much suspense about the outcome. Armey won 45% of the vote, which was not enough to avoid a runoff. Burgess won 23%. Then, in the four-week runoff campaign, Burgess benefited from a series of hard-hitting articles in the The Dallas Morning News about Scott Armey’s record as a county judge. The paper reported that he had used his position to steer county jobs and contracts to close friends, including a $1.5 million transportation consulting contract.
Burgess focused on health care and taxes. He had helped to draft the Texas Patients’ Bill of Rights and vowed to do the same on a national level. His campaign was helped by the support of medical societies and local physicians who urged their patients to vote for him. In another low-turnout affair, Burgess won 55%-45% in the runoff. Armey carried Collin and Tarrant counties, but tellingly lost 60%-40% in Denton County, where he was known best. After the runoff, his formerly powerful father spoke bitterly of the newspaper’s “vicious unprofessionalism” and accused the paper of a vendetta against the Armey family. In the general election, Burgess won 75%-23% over his Democrat opponent. He has been re-elected comfortably since.
In the House, Burgess has a reliably conservative voting record. He joined the Tea Party Caucus when it formed in 2010. Also that year, he voted “present” on a resolution commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam-era shootings at Kent State University because he said the measure implied that the National Guard was at fault. He has for several years pushed legislation to implement a flat tax, a popular idea with conservatives that would replace the federal income tax with a 23% sales tax on goods and services. He was among those on the right in 2009 to issue calls for the resignation of Kevin Jennings, leader of the White House’s safe and drug-free schools initiative. Burgess cited a Washington Times article that accused Jennings, who is gay, of giving sexual advice to minors.
Burgess is best known for his work on health care issues, especially since he joined the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over the medical industry. As vice chairman of its health subcommittee and founding chairman of the Congressional Health Care Caucus, he emerged as one of the most effective inquisitors during the health care hearings in 2011, and fellow Republicans regularly yielded him their extra time so he could ask pointed questions of Obama administration officials. He was especially vocal about seeking to fully de-fund the health law in the fiscal 2011 budget, an idea that House Republican leaders sought to defuse. His nine-part plan for health care reform includes many of the ideas that successful GOP candidates espoused in the 2010, including allowing patients to shop for insurance across state lines and limiting damages in malpractice lawsuits.
But he has shown that he is not a reflexive partisan. In the 111th Congress (2009-10), he was the lone Republican to vote with House Democrats to permanently fix the formula determining Medicare reimbursements for doctors. He also was part of a bipartisan group that introduced legislation in April 2011 ensuring that seniors who show signs of Alzheimer’s receive a formal diagnosis from their doctor. And in March 2009, he joined a bipartisan agreement to permit the Food and Drug Administration to approve generic versions of biologic drugs.
Burgess has made some inroads into the GOP leadership. He served as vice chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, which hammers out the party’s positions on issues. In 2008, Burgess was GOP presidential candidate McCain’s point person on health care policy.
