77 Facts About Orrin Hatch

Orrin Grant Hatch was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019.

Orrin Hatch chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987.

Orrin Hatch served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2001 and 2003 to 2005.

Orrin Hatch was chair of the Senate Finance Committee from 2015 to 2019, and led efforts to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Orrin Grant Hatch was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Orrin Hatch was the son of Jesse Hatch, a metal lather, and his wife Helen Frances Hatch.

Orrin Hatch had eight brothers and sisters, two of whom died during infancy.

Orrin Hatch was profoundly affected by the loss of his older brother Jesse, a US Army Air Forces nose turret gunner with the 725th Bombardment Squadron who was killed on February 7,1945, when the B-24 he was aboard was shot down over Austria.

Orrin Hatch, who grew up in poverty, was the first in his family to attend college; he attended Brigham Young University and earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1959.

In 1962, Orrin Hatch received a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Orrin Hatch has stated that during law school, he and his young family resided in a refurbished chicken coop behind his parents' house.

Orrin Hatch worked as an attorney in Pittsburgh and moved to Utah in 1969, where he continued to practice law.

In 1976, in his first run for public office, Orrin Hatch was elected to the United States Senate, defeating Democrat Frank Moss, a three-term incumbent.

In 1982, Orrin Hatch won re-election, defeating Ted Wilson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, by 17 points.

Orrin Hatch defeated Brian Moss by 35 points in 1988 and was re-elected in 1994,2000,2006, and 2012.

In 2000, Orrin Hatch campaigned for the Republican Party nomination for president.

Orrin Hatch took office as a US senator on January 3,1977.

Orrin Hatch chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 1981 to 1987.

Orrin Hatch served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

Orrin Hatch expressed interest in serving on the United States Supreme Court.

Orrin Hatch "worked across the aisle to pass landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program".

On January 3,2015, after the 114th United States Congress was sworn in, Orrin Hatch became President pro tempore of the Senate.

On December 25,2017, The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial entitled "Why Orrin Hatch is Utahn of the Year".

Orrin Hatch announced on January 2,2018, that he would retire from the Senate instead of seeking re-election that November.

Orrin Hatch retired from the Senate on January 3,2019, having served there for 42 years.

Orrin Hatch was strongly opposed to abortion and is the author of the Orrin Hatch Amendment proposed to the US Constitution, which states that there is no constitutional right to abortion and would empower the states to restrict abortion as they see fit.

In 1995, Orrin Hatch was the leading figure behind the Senate's anti-terrorism bill, to a large extent a response to the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Orrin Hatch voted in favor of the 2008 legislation that established the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Orrin Hatch voted in favor of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Orrin Hatch was a longtime advocate of amending the United States Constitution to require that total spending of the federal government for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts.

Orrin Hatch voted in favor of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment on at least nine occasions.

Orrin Hatch's proposed amendment passed the House of Representatives in 1997, but failed to pass the Senate by the required two-thirds majority by one vote to move on the states for ratification.

Orrin Hatch opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Orrin Hatch argued that the insurance mandate found in the legislation was not in the category that can be covered by the interstate commerce clause since it regulates the decision to engage in commercial activity rather than regulating the activity itself.

In 2018, Orrin Hatch said that Obamacare supporters were "the stupidest, dumbass people I've ever met".

Orrin Hatch was one of the first senators to suggest that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and promised to work on dismantling it when he becomes the Finance Committee Chairman.

Orrin Hatch was part of the group of 13 senators drafting the Senate version of the AHCA behind closed doors.

In 2003, Hatch supported the Medicare prescription drug benefit plan known as Medicare Part D Responding to criticism of the legislation during the 2009 debate on health care reform, Hatch said that in 2003 "it was standard practice not to pay for things" and that although there was concern at the time about increasing the deficit, supporting the bill was justified because it "has done a lot of good".

On March 25,2014, Orrin Hatch cosponsored the Emergency Medical Services for Children Reauthorization Act of 2014 in the Senate.

Orrin Hatch was one of the architects and advocates of the expansion of H-1B visas and has generally been an advocate of tougher enforcement immigration policy including voting for 1,500 new law enforcement agents to patrol the United States' borders.

Orrin Hatch proposed the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, who were children when their parents came to the United States.

Orrin Hatch critiqued President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from seven Muslim countries until better screening methods are devised.

Orrin Hatch reflected on his own family's immigration history and described the order as placing "unnecessary burdens" on families.

Orrin Hatch took a leading role in the Senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas in October 1991.

Nevertheless, in 1993, Orrin Hatch recommended Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom he knew personally, to President Bill Clinton to fill a vacancy on the US Supreme Court, even as he knew she was a political liberal.

Clinton had not previously considered Ginsburg, and Orrin Hatch, as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, assured him that a Ginsburg confirmation would go smoothly.

Orrin Hatch was long a proponent of expanding intellectual property rights and in 1997 introduced the Senate version of the Copyright Term Extension Act.

Orrin Hatch believed that intellectual property laws should, in general, more closely mirror real property laws, and offer greater protections to authors and creators.

On September 20,2010, Orrin Hatch attempted to outlaw websites which could be used for trademark and copyright infringement through the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act.

In 2012, Orrin Hatch recommended and supported District Court Judge Robert Shelby, a Barack Obama appointee, though Utah Senator Mike Lee voted against him in the Judiciary Committee.

Later that same year, Orrin Hatch voted in favor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation creating protected classes for those identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

In 2018, Orrin Hatch "honored Pride" by giving a speech in support of programs to help and serve LGBT youth.

Orrin Hatch prevailed on Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy to hold field hearings in Utah in 1980.

Orrin Hatch's hold on consideration of the treaty eventually got agreement from the Reagan administration to agree not to oppose radiation compensation for Utah citizens, but it still took another five years to get the bill through.

In December 2010, Orrin Hatch was one of twenty-six senators who voted against the ratification of New Start, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year.

Orrin Hatch introduced the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, narrowing the broad authority of the DEA to suspend drug "manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers".

Orrin Hatch stated the bill was written to protect patients from disruptions in the production and delivery of their prescription drugs, saying that.

Orrin Hatch responded to a Washington Post and 60 Minutes investigation into the bill by writing a Washington Post opinion article calling the investigation "misleading" and asking to "leave conspiracy theories to Netflix".

Orrin Hatch was the main author of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protected all religions' right to build church facilities on private property.

In 2010, Orrin Hatch defended the right of a private organization to build a mosque on private property in downtown Manhattan, citing this law and defense of the freedom of religion.

In 1999, Orrin Hatch called for a federal probe into manufacturers of violent video games, and proposed making the existing voluntary rating system for video games mandatory by federal law.

Orrin Hatch pushed legislation for the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would amend Article 2, Section I, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution.

In 2010, Orrin Hatch's bill was reauthorized which allowed stem cells from umbilical cords to be used to find treatment options.

In June 2013, Orrin Hatch commented on a G8 proposal that tax authorities in the world's largest economies openly share information among themselves in order to fight tax evasion.

Orrin Hatch stated that transparency is always a good thing, but he would like to see a bill before giving any support.

In 2017, Orrin Hatch was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging the President to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

In 2018, over the Judge Brett Kavanaugh US Supreme Court controversy, Orrin Hatch said that it did not matter even if Kavanaugh did what his accusers alleged was true.

In 2009, The Washington Times reported that Orrin Hatch said "My son, Scott, does not lobby me or anyone in my office".

Orrin Hatch was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Orrin Hatch served as an Latter-day Saint missionary in what was called the "Great Lakes States Mission" essentially covering large parts of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

Orrin Hatch later served in various positions in the church, including as a bishop.

Orrin Hatch was a founder and co-chair of the Federalist Society, an organization of conservative lawyers.

Orrin Hatch served as a member of the board of directors of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Orrin Hatch died in Salt Lake City on April 23,2022, aged 88, from complications of a stroke he had the week prior.

Orrin Hatch co-authored "Everything And More", sung by Billy Gilman.

Orrin Hatch appeared as himself, alongside Chuck Grassley, in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 Oscar-winning drama Traffic, in a brief cameo in a scene set during a Washington, DC cocktail party.

Orrin Hatch's likeness was featured in the 30 Rock episode "Jack Gets in the Game", aired in 2007, as one of Dr Leo Spaceman's famous clients.