Hatch, Orrin G(rant) 1934-

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HATCH, Orrin G(rant) 1934-

PERSONAL: Born March 22, 1934, in Pittsburgh, PA; son of Jesse (a metal lather) and Helen (Kamm) Hatch; married Elaine Hansen, August 28, 1957; children: Brent, Scott, Marcia, Kimberly, Alysa, and Jesse. Education: Brigham Young University, B.S., 1959; University of Pittsburgh, J.D., 1962. Politics: Republican. Religion: Mormon. Hobbies and other interests: Songwriting (hymns, patriotic and gospel songs), attending sporting events, golf, poetry, piano.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—The Honorable Senator Orrin Hatch, 104 Hart Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Thomson, Rhodes & Grigsby law firm, Pittsburgh, PA, attorney, 1962-69; Hatch & Plumb law firm, Salt Lake City, UT, founder and attorney, 1969-76; U.S. Senator (Republican-Utah), 1977—. Member of U.S. Senate committees, including intelligence, finance, Indian affairs, taxation, Republican policy, judiciary, labor and human resources; member of numerous Senate subcommittees; campaigned for U.S. presidential nomination, 2000; member of Senate Judiciary Committee, 2003—.

MEMBER: National, American, Utah, and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, American Judicature Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: LLD (honorary), University of Maryland, 1981; M.S. (honorary), Defense Intelligence College, 1982; LLD (honorary), Pepperdine University, 1990; LLD (honorary), Southern Utah State University, 1990; National Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Outstanding Legislator Award; American Association of University Affiliated Programs, Legislator of the Year Award; Health Professionals Association, Legislative Leadership Award; many others.

WRITINGS:

(With others) A Changing America: ConservativesView the '80s from the United States Senate, Regnery/Gateway (South Bend, IN), 1980.

The Equal Rights Amendment: Myths and Realities, Savant Press, 1983.

Higher Laws: Understanding the Doctrines of Christ, Deseret (Salt Lake City, UT), 1995.

Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator (autobiography), Basic Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to professional journals, including Fordham Urban Law Journal, Howard Journal of Law, and Public Policy.

SIDELIGHTS: U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch has served in his post since 1977 and has held no other public office. He is known as a staunch conservative who votes his conscience on the issues, sometimes siding with the liberal view if he feels it is right. Hatch was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but withdrew after several months to pursue another term in the Senate, which he won. He was appointed to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee beginning in 2003. His autobiography is Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator.

Hatch grew up in a working-class family in Pittsburgh, PA. He worked his way through college at Brigham Young University in Utah as a salesman, a janitor, and a lathe operator. He won a full-honors scholarship to study law at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his J.D. in 1962. Hatch worked at a Pittsburgh law firm for seven years after graduation and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to open his own corporate law firm.

Until 1960, Hatch had considered himself a liberal Democrat, but he found the party's platform to be economically unsound, in his opinion. Over the next fifteen years, he became increasingly conservative, and in 1976 he decided to run for the U.S. Senate, even though he had never held a public office. With the support of Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, Hatch won the election with 54 percent of the votes, the largest percentage won by a Utah Republican nominee since 1926.

Hatch became known for his lengthy speeches designed to filibuster legislation that he did not want to see pass, including a union-favorable amendment to the National Labor Relations Act. He opposed President Jimmy Carter's social welfare programs and helped to successfully fight a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College in 1979. In 1980 Hatch and a fellow senator broke a conservative filibuster to pass legislation that allowed the federal government to sue states that failed to protect the rights of persons confined in state institutions.

Under President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, Hatch served as chairman of the powerful Labor and Human Resources Committee. Although opposed to affirmative action, he held meetings on alleged employment and wage discrimination against women and fought to lower the high unemployment rate for blacks. Hatch also helped to pass a bill calling for a balanced federal budget, except during wartime. He supported cutting government spending in every area except defense and strongly supported the strategic defense system. However, he did oppose cutting the budget for the Job Corps program, which provided training to young, unskilled workers, saying that the hopelessness of unemployment amounted to a kind of slavery.

Hatch has always taken a strong stance against abortion and was instrumental in legislation that gave states the power to set laws restricting, though not banning abortion. Hatch supported legislation protecting families and children, promoting education, and enacting "hate crimes" laws. In 1997, Hatch raised conservative eyebrows by teaming with liberal Democratic senator Ted Kennedy—seen to be his opposite—on a bill to use higher taxes on tobacco products to pay for health insurance for poor children. Hatch and Kennedy have formed a strong friendship and working relationship over their years in the Senate.

Hatch has said he feels that some of his greatest accomplishments were the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act supporting labeling and manufacturing guidelines for supplements; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and two bills designed to help victims of AIDS, including newborns with the HIV virus. He also supports stem cell research. In 1995, Hatch supported a Senate version of the House Common Sense Legal Reform Act, designed to improve the nation's legal system.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, Hatch was one of the first to release to the news media that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the attacks. In an online discussion moderated by the Washington Post in October, 2002, Hatch said that he was the first senator to express concern about bin Laden during the mid-1990s and warned the administration that "they had better get on top of him or he would kill Americans."

Hatch considered his top priority as chairman of the 2003 Senate Committee on the Judiciary "to move the president's [George W. Bush's] nominees diligently and fairly through the committee," according to Drake Bennett and Alex Gourevitch, in the American Prospect.

Hatch has been a prolific contributor of articles to professional journals, and he coauthored A Changing America: Conservatives View the '80s from the United States Senate, and wrote The Equal Rights Amendment: Myths and Realities. He was the subject of two previous biographies by Lee Rodrick, Leading the Charge and Gentleman of the Senate.

Hatch's 2002 autobiography, Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator, is part essay on the proper practice of politics and part memoir of his long and successful tenure in the U.S. Senate and his efforts to put his principles into practice. Hatch discusses public service, mentors in politics, convictions and religious faith, surviving personal attacks, and admitting being wrong. His book is augmented by stories from behind the scenes during some of the most controversial events of his tenure, such as the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings, the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, and the new antiterrorism legislation. It also goes into depth about his friendship with Ted Kennedy.

Hatch told a Washington Post online mediator that he hoped to call attention to "a lot of inside stories and information you will not see in the media that might help people appreciate their country and what it stands for." He said the publisher chose the title "Square Peg" after commenting that Hatch really did not fit into any political categories.

Martin Naparsteck, in the Salt Lake Tribune, commented that Hatch writes with "sincere humility"; that his book is "a fair apologia, a reasonable explanation for why he did what he did"; and that it is "funny." However, Naparsteck thought Hatch does not actually confess to having done anything wrong, as the title might suggest. He also found that, while Hatch claims to have been criticized for his questioning of Anita Hill in the Thomas confirmation hearings, he also claims never to have questioned her. And Naparsteck observed that while Hatch says he was as bold as former president John F. Kennedy in addressing his religion during a presidential campaign, he does not cite an occasion in which he did so.

A contributor to Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Hatch's text is more reasoned and surely less bombastic than some readers might expect" and noted that the book has "straightforwardness and considerable wit." Gilbert Taylor, of Booklist, described Square Peg as a book in which Hatch "reviews his career and mixes anecdotes with explanations of the folkways of the Senate." A Publishers Weekly contributor observed, "Hatch comes off as warmhearted, committed and self-effacing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Newsmakers, Issue 2, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Roderick, Lee, Leading the Charge: Orrin Hatch andTwenty Years of America, Gold Leaf Press (Carson City, NV), 1994.

Vetterli, Richard, Orrin Hatch: Challenging theWashington Establishment, Regnery Gateway (Chicago, IL), 1982.

PERIODICALS

ABA Journal, April, 1995, Gary A. Hengstler, "At the Seat of Power," pp. 70-74.

American Prospect, December 30, 2002, Drake Bennett and Alex Gourevitch, "Put a Face on Your Fears: The Apprehensive Citizen's Guide to the New Republican Committee Chairmen of the U.S. Senate—and What They Have in Store for Us," p. 20.

Booklist, October 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator, p. 274.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2002, review of SquarePeg, p. 1445.

Publishers Weekly, October 14, 2002, review of SquarePeg, p. 74.