Bill Frist

Bill Frist
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Jim Sasser
Succeeded by	Bob Corker
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Deputy	Mitch McConnell
Preceded by	Tom Daschle
Succeeded by	Harry Reid
Personal details
Born	William Harrison Frist February 22, 1952 (1952-02-22) (age 59) Nashville, Tennessee
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Karyn Frist
Residence	Nashville
Alma mater	Princeton University (A.B.) Harvard Medical School (M.D.)
Occupation	Cardiothoracic surgeon Professor Businessman Philanthropist
Religion	Presbyterian

William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. (born February 22, 1952) is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America.^[1] Frist later served two terms as a Republican United States Senator representing Tennessee. He was the Republican Majority Leader from 2003 until his retirement in 2007.

Childhood and medical career

Frist was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Dorothy Cate Frist and Thomas Fearn Frist, Sr.^[2] He is a fourth-generation Tennessean. His great-great grandfather was one of the founders of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his father was a doctor and founded the health care business organization which became Hospital Corporation of America. Bill Frist's brother Thomas Frist Jr. became chairman and chief executive of Hospital Corporation of America in 1997.^[3]

Frist graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee and then from Princeton University in 1974, where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1972 he held a summer internship with Tennessee Congressman Joe Evins, who advised Frist that if he wanted to pursue a political career, he should first have a career outside of politics. Frist proceeded to Harvard Medical School, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine with honors in 1978. While at Harvard he shared an apartment with future-United States Congressman David Wu.^[4]

Frist joined the lab of W. John Powell Jr., M.D. at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1977, where he continued his training in cardiovascular physiology. He left the lab in 1978 to become a resident in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1983, he spent time at Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, England as senior registrar in cardiothoracic surgery. He returned to Massachusetts General in 1984 as chief resident and fellow in cardiothoracic surgery. From 1985 until 1986, Frist was senior fellow and chief resident in cardiac transplant service and cardiothoracic surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After completing his fellowship, he became a faculty member at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he began a heart and lung transplantation program. He also became staff surgeon at the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1989, he founded the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. In 1991, Dr. Frist operated on then-Lieutenant Colonel David Petraeus after he'd been shot in a training accident at Fort Campbell.

He is currently licensed as a physician, and is board certified in both general surgery and thoracic surgery. He has performed over 150 heart transplants and lung transplants, including pediatric heart transplants and combined heart and lung transplants.

Entering politics

In 1990, Frist met with former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker about the possibilities of public office. Baker advised him to pursue the Senate, and in 1992 suggested that Frist begin preparations to run in 1994. Frist began to build support. He served on Tennessee's Governor's Medicaid Task Force from 1992 to 1993, joined the National Steering Committee of the Republican National Committee's Health Care Coalition, and was deputy director of the Tennessee Bush-Quayle '92 campaign.

With Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) looking on, President George W. Bush signs into law Pub.L. 109-353, the North Korea Nonproliferation Act of 2006.

During the 1994 election Frist promised not to serve for more than two terms.^[5] He accused his opponent, incumbent Senator Jim Sasser, of "sending Tennessee money to Washington, DC", and said, "While I've been transplanting lungs and hearts to heal Tennesseans, Jim Sasser has been transplanting Tennesseans' wallets to Washington, home of Marion Barry." During the campaign he also criticized Sasser for trying to become Senate Majority Leader, claiming that his opponent would be spending more time taking care of Senate business than Tennessee business. Frist won the election, defeating Sasser by 13 points in the 1994 Republican sweep of both Houses of Congress, thus becoming the first physician in the Senate since June 17, 1938, when Royal S. Copeland died.

In his 2000 reelection campaign, Frist easily won with 66 percent of the vote. He received the largest vote total ever by a statewide candidate. Frist's 2000 campaign organization was later fined by the Federal Election Commission for failing to disclose a $1.44 million loan taken out jointly with the 1994 campaign organization.^[6]

National attention

Frist first entered the national spotlight when two Capitol police officers were shot inside the United States Capitol by Russell Eugene Weston Jr. in 1998. Frist, the closest doctor, provided immediate medical attention (he was unable to save the two officers, but was able to save Weston). He also was the Congressional spokesman during the 2001 anthrax attacks.

As the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he helped Republicans win back the Senate in the 2002 midterm election. His committee collected $66.4 million for 2001–2002, 50% more than the previous year. Shortly afterwards, Sen. Trent Lott made comments at a Strom Thurmond birthday celebration in which he said that if Thurmond's presidential bid of 1948 had succeeded, "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years". In the aftermath, Lott resigned his position as Senate Majority Leader and Frist was chosen unanimously by Senate Republicans as his replacement. He became the third youngest Senate Majority Leader in US history. In his 2005 book, "Herding Cats, A Lifetime in Politics", Lott accuses William Frist of being "one of the main manipulators" in the debate that ended Senator Lott's leadership in the Republican Senate. Lott wrote that Senator Frist's actions amounted to a "personal betrayal." Frist "... didn't even have the courtesy to call and tell me personally that he was going to run ... If Frist had not announced exactly when he did, as the fire was about to burn out, I would still be majority leader of the Senate today," Lott wrote.

In the 2003 legislative session, Frist enjoyed many successes. He was able to push many initiatives through to fruition, including the Bush administration's third major tax cut and legislation that was against partial-birth abortion. However, the tactics that he used to achieve those victories alienated many Democrats. In 2004, by comparison, he saw no major legislative successes, with the explanations ranging from delay tactics by Democrats to lack of unity within the Republican Party.

Sen. Frist with Sen. Lamar Alexander and Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

In a prominent and nationally broadcast speech to the Republican National Convention in August 2004, Frist highlighted his background as a doctor and focused on several issues related to health care. He spoke in favor of the recently passed Medicare prescription drug benefit and the passage of legislation providing for Health Savings Accounts. He described President Bush's policy regarding stem cell research, limiting embryonic stems cells to certain existing lines, as "ethical." In an impassioned argument for medical malpractice tort reform, Frist called personal injury trial lawyers "predators": "We must stop them from twisting American medicine into a litigation lottery where they hit the jackpot and every patient ends up paying." Frist has been an advocate for imposing caps on the amount of money courts can award plaintiffs for noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases.^[7]

During the 2004 election season, Frist employed the unprecedented political tactic of going to the home state (South Dakota) of the opposition party (Democrat)'s minority leader, Democrat Tom Daschle, and actively campaigned against him. Daschle's Republican opponent, John Thune, defeated Daschle. In Daschle's farewell address, Frist arrived late. After the 2004 elections, Frist played a role in the controversy over Arlen Specter's post-election remarks. Frist demanded a public statement from Specter in which Specter would repudiate his earlier remarks and pledge support for Bush's judiciary nominees. Frist rejected an early version of the statement as too weak, and gave his approval to the statement that Specter eventually delivered.

Frist received some criticism within the Republican caucus in the Senate over his handling of the Majority Leader position, and his near invisibility as a spokesman for the Republican caucus, which has damaged his reputation. His supporters within the caucus pointed to his success in moving tax legislation important to the executive branch as a sign that he was simply filling his place on the team, namely to bring important bills to a vote, and then ensure that gains made on the floor were preserved in the conference committee process.

Many of Frist's opponents have attacked him for what they see as pandering to future Republican primary voters. They claim that he has taken extreme positions on social issues such as the Terri Schiavo case in order to please them. On the other hand, Frist changed his position on stem cell research.

There has also been controversy regarding the "nuclear option", under which the Republicans would change a rule in the Senate to prevent the filibuster of judicial nominations. Although Frist claimed that "[n]ever before has a minority blocked a judicial nominee that has majority support for an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor," critics pointed to the nearly two-century history of the filibuster, including the successful four-day 1968 minority Republican filibuster of Lyndon Johnson's chief justice nominee, Abe Fortas.^[8][9] Also, in 1998 Frist participated in the Republican filibuster to stall the nomination of openly gay James C. Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg; Hormel eventually received a recess appointment from President Bill Clinton, bypassing a Senate vote. Frist also helped block the 1996 nomination of Richard Paez to the 9th Federal Court of Appeals, a four-year filibuster that was defeated in 2000 when 14 Republicans dropped their support for it and allowed Paez to be confirmed by a simple majority.

More criticism of perceived weakness came in the midst of an extended confirmation fight over Bush's pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton. Twice Frist failed to garner the 60 votes to break cloture, getting fewer votes the second time and even losing the support of one moderate Republican (George Voinovich of Ohio). On June 21, 2005, Frist said the situation had been "exhausted" and there would be no more votes. Only an hour later, after speaking to the White House, Frist said: "The president made it very clear he wants an up-or-down vote." This sudden switch in strategy led to charges of flip-flopping in response to pressure from the Bush administration. Nevertheless, no up-and-down vote was held, and Bush made a recess appointment of Bolton.

In September 2006, working with Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, Frist was a major Senate supporter of H.R. 4411 — the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Frist's bill called for restrictions on banking transactions for online gambling, while Frist has received contributions from land-based casinos. The bill, which passed without debate as part of the SAFE Port Act, also allowed horse racing and lotteries to remain legal.

Political future

Frist at the inauguration of his successor Bob Corker (second left). Along with Tennessee's former Senator Howard Baker (second right), and Senior Senator Lamar Alexander (far right).

Frist pledged to leave the Senate after two terms in 2006, and did not run in the 2006 Republican primary for his Senate seat. He campaigned heavily for Republican nominee Bob Corker, who won by a small margin over Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. in the general election.

Frist was seen as a potential presidential candidate for the Republican party in 2008, like Bob Dole, a previous holder of the Senate Majority Leader position. On November 28, 2006, however, he announced that he had decided not to run, and would return to the field of medicine.^[10]

Frist's name was mentioned as a possible candidate for Governor of Tennessee in 2010 when incumbent Governor Phil Bredesen was barred from running again due to term limits. Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Bob Davis has said that "he'd have a lot of support" if he chose to run.^[11] However, Frist announced that he had decided not to seek that office in January 2009.

ONE campaign

After his Senate career he became a Co-Chair of ONE VOTE '08, an initiative of the ONE campaign, with Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). According to onevote.org, "ONE Vote '08 is an unprecedented, non-partisan campaign to make global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election."^[12] He traveled to Africa in support of various initiatives for the ONE campaign in July 2008 and an extensive blog about his trip exists, complete with videos.^[13]

Other professional and charitable activities

In June 1989, Frist published his first book, Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-And-Death Dramas of the New Medicine, in which he wrote, "A doctor is a man whose job justifies everything . . . Life [is] a gift, not an inalienable right."

With J. H. Helderman, he edited "Grand Rounds in Transplantation" in 1995. In October, 1999, Frist co-authored Tennessee Senators, 1911–2001: Portraits of Leadership in a Century of Change with J. Lee Annis, Jr. In March, 2002, Frist published his third book, When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate's Only Doctor. While generally well received, the book later spurred accusations of hypocrisy regarding his remarks about Richard Clarke. When Clarke published his book Against All Enemies in 2004, Frist stated "I am troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their service as a government insider with access to our nation's most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001." In December, 2003, Frist and co-author Shirley Wilson released the self-promoting book, Good People Beget Good People: A Genealogy of the Frist Family.

In 1998 Frist visited African hospitals and schools with the Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse. Frist has continued to make medical mission trips to Africa every year since 1998. He has also been vocal in speaking out against the genocide occurring in Darfur.

During 2007-2008, Frist was the Frederick H. Schultz Professor of International Economic Policy in Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.^[14]

In 2008, he became a partner in Chicago-based Cressey & Co. investing in the nation's health care market.^[15][16] In 2009, Frist began teaching at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management and at the Medical School^[14] where he taught before his 1994 election, while becoming a chairman of the Nashville-based nonprofit organization Hope Through Healing Hands that centers on health and education around the world.^[17] He also launched a statewide education reform initiative targeting K-12 education called SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education).^[18]

In May 2009, Frist joined forensic chemical and drug-testing laboratory Aegis Sciences Corp. as a health care advisor and member of its board of directors. His new responsibilities include assisting in Aegis’s development of a strategic alliance with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, providing counsel on the company’s research and development for new laboratory-based toxicology assessments, and advise Aegis on general health care issues.^[19]

On November 2009, Frist joined the board of directors of engineering, construction and technical services firm URS Corp. to bring his expertise and unique perspective on a wide range of economic issues.^[20][21]

In March, 2010, Frist was appointed a member of the six-person board of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which had raised $36 million to date for immediate earthquake relief and long-term recovery efforts in the Caribbean country.^[22] Frist had also traveled to Haiti with Samaritan's Purse in January, 2010.^[14]

Frist also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he is a co-leader of the Health Project^[23]

Personal life

In 1982, Frist married Karyn McLaughlin, whom he met at a Boston emergency hospital. They have three sons: Harrison, Jonathan, and Bryan. The Frist family are members of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C..

Frist has been a pilot since the age of 16. He holds commercial, instrument and multi-engine ratings. He has also run seven marathons and two half-marathons.

Financial status

Frist has a fortune in the millions of dollars, most of it the result of his ownership of stock in Hospital Corporation of America, the for-profit hospital chain founded by his brother and father. Frist's 2005 financial disclosure form lists blind trusts valued between $15 million and $45 million.^[24]

Members of the Frist family have been major donors to Princeton University, pledging a reported $25 million in 1997 for the construction of the Frist Campus Center.^[25] Frist has said that, a few years after his 1974 graduation from Princeton, "I made a commitment to myself that if I was ever in a position to help pull together the resources to establish a center [on the Princeton campus] where there could be an informal exchange of ideas, and to establish an environment that is conducive to the casual exchange of information, I would do so."^[26] Daniel Golden, a Wall Street Journal journalist and author of the book The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges — and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates, has suggested that two of Frist's sons (Harrison and Bryan) were admitted to Princeton as recognition of this donation rather than their own academic and extracurricular merit.^[27]

Frist and his wife are the sole trustees in charge of a family foundation bearing the senator's name, which had more than $2 million in assets in 2004. He and his siblings are vice presidents of another charitable foundation bearing their parents' names. Frist failed to list his positions with the two foundations on his Senate disclosure form. In July 2006, when the matter was raised by the Associated Press, his staff said the form would be amended. Frist has previously disclosed his board position with World of Hope, a charity that gives money to causes associated with AIDS. The charity has come under scrutiny for paying consulting fees to members of Frist's political inner circle.^[28]

The status of Frist’s blind trust, and subsequent statements about it and activities within it led to an SEC Investigations of the trustees June 13, 2005 sale. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued subpoenas to investigate the sale, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began an insider trading investigation of the sale. After an 18 month investigation, the SEC closed its probe without pressing charges. Frist said in a statement, "I've always conducted myself according to the highest ethical standards in both my personal and public life, and my family and I are pleased that this matter has been resolved." ^[29]

Controversies

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA)

At the last minute before Congress adjourned for the 2006 elections in what politicos call a “midnight drop” Majority Leader Bill Frist inserted the otherwise unpassable "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act" (UIGEA) clauses into the bigger unrelated Security and Accountability for Every Port (SAFE) Act. The SAFE Act itself was a late “must pass” bill, designed to safeguard ports from terrorist infiltration. ^[30] This act clearly opposed majority public opinion. In the Zogby International Poll 87% believe online gambling is a personal choice which should not be banned. The Wall Street Journal Poll showed 85% oppose government prohibition of online gambling.^[31] The UIGEA became the basis for the massively unpopular government crackdown and domain name seizure of the worlds top three online poker sites dubbed "black Friday" on April 15, 2011.^[32]

FEC Finds Frist 2000 Violated Law

The FEC (Federal Election Commission) found that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s 2000 Senate campaign committee, Frist 2000, Inc. violated federal campaign finance laws. "In June 2000, Senator Frist took $1 million of the money that had been contributed to his 2000 Senate campaign and invested it in the stock market, where it promptly began losing money. In November 2000, Senator Frist sought to collect $1.2 million he had lent his 1994 Senate campaign committee. As a result of the stock market losses, however, Frist 2000, Inc. did not have enough money to repay the loan. Senator Frist solved this problem by having the 1994 and the 2000 campaign committees jointly take out a $1.44 million bank loan at a cost of $10,000 a month interest. Frist 2000, Inc. did not report this debt on its FEC disclosure forms."^[33] In both 2005 and 2006, Senator Frist was named one of the "Most Corrupt Members of Congress"^[34] by the liberal Democratic leaning government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for ethics inquiries stemming from his troubles with the FEC and an investigation by the SEC for stock sales potentially based on inside information.^[35]

Schiavo case

Main article: Terri Schiavo case

In the Terri Schiavo case, a brain-damaged woman whose husband wanted to remove her gastric feeding tube, Frist opposed the removal and in a speech delivered on the Senate Floor, challenged the diagnosis of Schiavo's physicians of Schiavo being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS): "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office".^[36] Frist was criticized by a medical ethicist at Northwestern University for making a diagnosis without personally examining the patient and for questioning the diagnosis when he was not a neurologist.^[37] After her death, the autopsy showed signs of long-term and irreversible damage to a brain consistent with PVS.^[38] Frist defended his actions after the autopsy.^[39] Various complaints^[vague] against Frist, a licensed physician, were filed with medical oversight organizations,^{[citation needed]} but no action was taken.

Medical school experiments

While he was a medical school student in the 1970s, Frist performed fatal medical experiments and vivisection on shelter cats while researching the use of drugs on the mitral valve. By his own account, Frist improperly obtained these cats from Boston animal shelters, falsely telling shelter staff he was adopting the cats as pets.^[40] In his book, Frist asserted that he succumbed to the pressure to succeed in a highly competitive medical school.

Frist's treatment of cats first became controversial in 1994, in his first Senate campaign, when the opposing camp in the Republican primary called him a cat-killer. The matter again created public controversy in 2002, after mention in a Boston Globe profile, published after his election as Senate majority leader.^[41][42]

Ideology and issues

Frist's primary legislative focus has been on issues of concern to the health care industry and on pro-life issues. The senator also opposes abortion and all federal funding of abortion. In the Senate, he led the fight against partial birth abortion, voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003 and against an amendment to include a woman's health exception (as he considered the procedure to be hazardous to a woman's health).^[43]

Frist supported a total ban on human cloning, including for embryonic stem cell research. Since 2001, Frist had stood beside Bush in his insistence that only currently existing lines be used for stem cell research. But in July 2005, after severely criticizing the MLO, Frist reversed course and endorsed a House-passed plan to expand federal funding of the research, saying "it's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science."^[44] Up to that point the legislation had been considered bottled up in the Senate. The decision quickly drew criticism from some Christian groups such as Dr. James Dobson, but garnered praise from some Democrats and many Republicans, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Frist supports programs to fight AIDS and African poverty. He travels to Africa frequently to provide medical care.

On education, Frist supports the No Child Left Behind Act, which passed in 2001 with bipartisan support. In August 2005, he announced his support for teaching intelligent design in public school science classes.

He opposes same-sex marriage and adoption by homosexual couples.^[45] He supports the death penalty.

In November 2005, Frist told reporters that he was less concerned about possible torture at CIA secret prisons than he was about potentially compromising the security of millions of Americans. Flying home after visiting the Guantanamo Bay detention center he said September 10, 2006 he expects bipartisan support for putting top captured al-Qaida figures on trial before military commissions and for guidelines on how they should be treated. Frist visited the detention center in eastern Cuba, which holds some 460 detainees, including 14 top alleged al-Qaida figures recently transferred from CIA custody. He stated that his visit with fellow Republicans Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, was especially poignant coming one day short of the fifth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Frist said that visiting the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, and recognizing that the 14 individuals who likely contributed to the September 11, 2001 attacks were there, led him to realize how critical it is that the U.S. define the appropriate criteria to make sure that the government have the information to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. The senators didn't see the 14 new detainees, but visited Guantanamo to learn of the interrogation techniques. In his mind, the detainees are being treated in a safe and humane way.

After leaving the Senate, during the health care reform debates, Frist stated that he would have broken with his party and would have voted in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was unanimously voted against by Republicans.^[46] In January 2011, after the Republicans regained a majority in the House, Frist called on them not to attempt to repeal the health care law.^[47]

Electoral history

Tennessee United States Senate Election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Bill Frist (Incumbent)	1,255,444	65.10	+8.75
	Democratic	Jeff Clark	621,152	32.21	-10
	Republican hold		Swing

Tennessee United States Senate Election, 1994
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Bill Frist	834,226	56.35	+21
	Democratic	Jim Sasser (Incumbent)	623,164	42.10	-22.99
	Republican gain from Democratic		Swing

References

1. ^ Johnson, Carrie (April 27, 2007). "Frist Not Charged as Investigators Close Probe of His Hospital Stock Sales". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602343.html. 
2. ^ Ancestry of Bill Frist
3. ^ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hcas-ipo-could-be-a-boon-for-hospital-industry-2010-04-15
4. ^ www.NationalJournal.com
5. ^ Frist, Bill (2009-01-04). "A Tremendous Personal Honor". VOLPAC. http://www.volpac.org/. Retrieved 2009-01-06. 
6. ^ FEC Finds that Frist 2000 Violated Law on 1 Jun 2006
7. ^ "Text: Remarks by Sen. Frist to the Republican National Convention". Washington Post (FDCH E-Media, Inc). August 31, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50446-2004Aug31.html. 
8. ^ Babington, Charles (March 18, 2005). "Filibuster Precedent? Democrats Point to '68 and Fortas". Washington Post: p. A03. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45149-2005Mar17.html. 
9. ^ MITCHELL, GEORGE J. (May 10, 2005). "The Not-So-Secret History of Filibusters". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/opinion/10Mitchell.html. 
10. ^ "Frist Decides Against ’08 Presidential Bid", Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2006
11. ^ Youngman, Sam (January 18, 2007). "Frist Looking at Governor Run in 2010". The Hill. http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/011707/frist.html. 
12. ^ http://www.onevote08.org/aboutone.php
13. ^ http://www.one.org/blog/category/one/onestaffafricatrip/fristjulyafricatrip/
14. ^ ^{a b c} "Faculty Profile". Vanderbilt Owen School Web site. http://owen.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt/about/faculty-research/f_profile.cfm?id=234. Retrieved 2010-03-30. ^{[dead link]}
15. ^ "Cressey & Company Forms Executive Board". Reuters (PRNewswire). June 9, 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS98246+09-Jun-2008+PRN20080609. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
16. ^ "Bill Frist, Cressey & Co. open Nashville officeNashville". Business Journal. August 27, 2008. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/08/25/daily33.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
17. ^ Frist, Bill (2009-01-04). "A Tremendous Personal Honor". VOLPAC. http://www.volpac.org/. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
18. ^ "ABOUT US". SCORE. http://www.tnscore.org/about-us/. Retrieved 2010-08-10. 
19. ^ "Dr. William Frist Joins Aegis Sciences as Health Care Advisor". Business Wire (press release). May 20, 2009. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090520005146&newsLang=en. 
20. ^ "Bill Frist joins board of engineering giant". Nashville Post. 2009-11-18. http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2009/11/18/bill_frist_joins_board_of_urs_corp_. Retrieved 2010-01-20. 
21. ^ "URS-Investor Relations-Board of Directors". http://investors.urscorp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=89381&p=irol-govboard. Retrieved 4 September 2011. 
22. ^ "Bolten '76, Frist '74 appointed to serve on Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's Board of Directors" by Daily Princetonian Staff, March 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
23. ^ Bipartisan Policy Center To Announce New Health Project Led by Former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist and Former Governor Ted Strickland
24. ^ Sen. Frist sells HCA stock; then price falls
25. ^ Frist family and Scully fund university projects
26. ^ Captain America: The Senator explains politics, the virtues of public service, and life in general beyond the Cottage Club
27. ^ Thornburgh, Nathan (13 August 2006). "How VIPs get in". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226164,00.html. 
28. ^ Frist Fails to Disclose Foundation Role
29. ^ Frist Not Charged as Investigators Close Probe of His Hospital Stock Sales Washington Post, April 27, 2007
30. ^ http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/oct/01/00027/
31. ^ http://www.firstamendment.com/site-articles/UIEGA/#_ftn8
32. ^ http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April11/scheinbergetalindictmentpr.pdf
33. ^ "National Briefing – Washington: Election Panel Says Frist Campaign Violated Law". The New York Times. June 2, 2006. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E5DE1731F931A35755C0A9609C8B63. 
34. ^ Neubauer, Chuck (September 25, 2005). "Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/print/2005/sep/25/nation/na-ethics25. 
35. ^ Birnbaum, Jeffrey H.; Smith, R. Jeffrey (September 24, 2005). "SEC, Justice Investigate Frist's Sale of Stock". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092301811.html. 
36. ^ Frist, Bill (2005). Bill Frist : a senator speaks out on ethics, respect and compassion. Washington, D.C.: Monument Press. pp. 195. ISBN 0-9769668-3-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=0aFiYpPzsgYC&lpg=PA195&dq=%22I%20question%20it%20based%20on%20a%20review%20of%20the%20video%20footage%20which%20I%20spent%20an%20hour%20or%20so%20looking%20at%20last%20night%20in%20my%20office%22&pg=PA195#v=onepage&q=%22I%20question%20it%20based%20on%20a%20review%20of%20the%20video%20footage%20which%20I%20spent%20an%20hour%20or%20so%20looking%20at%20last%20night%20in%20my%20office%22&f=false. 
37. ^ Letter: Frist Schiavo diagnosis being reviewed in Tennessee June 24, 2005
38. ^ Medical Examiner's Report on the Schiavo Autopsy June 13, 2005
39. ^ Kornblut, Anne E. (2005). "Schiavo Autopsy Renews Debate on G.O.P. Actions". The New York Times, June 16, 2005
40. ^ William H. Frist, MD, Transplant : A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-and-Death Dramas of the New Medicine, Fawcett; Reprint edition (August 28, 1990), ISBN 0-449-21905-4
41. ^ Kranish, Michael (2002-10-27). "First Responder". Boston Globe. 
42. ^ "Kitty-killer label litters Frist resume for president". The Tennessean. 2006-06-12. http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060612/COLUMNIST0101/606120346/1092/NEWS. 
43. ^ Frist Floor Statement on Partial-Birth Abortion
44. ^ . London. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5176053,00.html. ^{[dead link]}
45. ^ http://ontheissues.org/Senate/Bill_Frist.htm
46. ^ Time. October 2, 2009. http://swampland.time.com/2009/10/02/bill-frist-on-health-bill-id-vote-for-it/. 
47. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/bill-frist-health-care-repeal-gop_n_810345.html

Further reading

• Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (2005-07-30). "Frist hears cheers, jeers after stem cell reversal". The New York Times. 
• HumanEvents.com — 'Frist a Major Share-Holder in Reputed For-Profit Abortion Provider', Terence P. Jeffrey (Dec 23, 2002), Human Events
• NYTimes.com — 'Leadership in Recapturing the Senate Pushed Frist Into Spotlight', David Firestone,The New York Times (December 21, 2002)
• Senator sold stock before price dropped (AP story on Frist's sale of HCA stock)

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Tennessee Department of Health — Practioner Profile (William H. Frist, MD)
• Hope Through Healing Hands
• SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education)
• Facebook: Bill Frist

Political offices
Preceded by Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota)	United States Senate Majority Leader January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007	Succeeded by Harry Reid (D-Nevada)
United States Senate
Preceded by Jim Sasser (D)	United States Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee January 4, 1995 - January 3, 2007 Served alongside: Fred Thompson, Lamar Alexander	Succeeded by Bob Corker (R)
Party political offices
Preceded by Bill Anderson	Republican nominee for United States Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee 1994, 2000	Succeeded by Bob Corker
Preceded by Mitch McConnell Kentucky	Chairman of National Republican Senatorial Committee 2001–2003	Succeeded by George Allen Virginia
Preceded by Trent Lott Mississippi	Senate Republican Leader 2003–2007	Succeeded by Mitch McConnell Kentucky

Persondata
Name	Frist, Bill
Alternative names	Frist, William Harrison
Short description	physician, businessman, and politician
Date of birth	February 22, 1952
Place of birth	Nashville, Tennessee
Date of death
Place of death