Ex-Congressman Tom Loeffler is a revolving-door lobbyist close to two Bush administration scandals. After Bush appointed him to the University or Texas Board of Regents, Loeffler joined the scandal-plagued board overseeing UT endowment funds (see Pioneer R. Steven Hicks). His firm then delivered a lobbying coup, getting Bush’s Board of health to kill off proposed rules to restrict sales of a ephedrine-based diet remedies linked to eight Texas deaths (see Pioneers Bill Ceverha and Craig Keeland). The Center for Public Integrity ranked Loeffler’s firm as Bush’s No. 10 “career patron,” with the Loefflers delivering more than half of this cash. Loeffler seemed predestined for special-interest lobbying. An ’84 Public Citizen survey found that he voted with consumers in just one out of 40 key votes—Congress’ worst voting record. Loeffler also topped a list of five members of Congress whose campaigns received illegal corporate money from Vernon Savings & Loan, which failed at a taxpayer cost of $1.3 billion. A Vernon officer told an ‘89 grand jury that Loeffler offered to set up a meeting with then Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III if they helped pay Loeffler’s debt from a failed ’86 gubernatorial bid. Four Vernon executives then moved $8,000 in laundered corporate money to Loeffler’s campaign, this officer testified, just before federal regulators forced them to resign.