Chamber Gives CEO Donohue Three More Years Despite Waning Clout

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has chosen to keep its octogenarian top leader in place, the organization’s board announced, even as it grapples with diminished influence and a new Republican Party mindset that doesn’t always align with its own.

Thomas Donohue, 81, will remain chief executive officer through June 2022, extending a tenure that began in 1997, during President Bill Clinton’s second term.

With Donohue at the helm, the chamber closely aligned itself with the Republican Party, which it could reliably count on to follow its wishes. But it’s had little luck with President Donald Trump, a non-traditional Republican on issues ranging from tariffs to drug prices.

That’s led the group to add a new metric to its scorecard for lawmakers -- bipartisanship -- which Donohue announced in January. The chamber spent $15.2 million in the 2018 election cycle, but didn’t support a single Democratic candidate, federal data shows. Its political action committee leaned heavily to the GOP as well. It gave $248,999 to Republican candidates for the House and Senate compared to $53,500 for Democrats.

In addition to retaining Donohue, the chamber is promoting Suzanne Clark, 50, to president, a title that Donohue also held. She led a transformation of the organization’s culture over the last five years, the group said.

Board chairman Tom Wilson said Donohue and Clark will allow the chamber to focus on its near-term political priorities as well as its long-term sustainability, which includes raising a $250 million capital fund. Wilson also said the chamber needs to rebuild the political center to achieve results.

“To ensure businesses can create jobs and economic prosperity, we need Congress to support fair trade, infrastructure improvements and immigration reform,” Wilson said in a statement.

To date, the Trump administration has taken the opposite tack or made little progress on the chamber’s priorities. Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods last year in a trade dispute with Beijing, and has threatened to raise tariffs on Mexican goods if the country’s government doesn’t prevent migrants from approaching the U.S. border.

At a scheduled meeting at the White House on May 22 to discuss infrastructure spending, Trump told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he wouldn’t discuss policy issues as long as the Democrats pursue their post-Mueller report probes of his administration.

Drug prices have been a point of contention between the Chamber and the administration. Donohue has warned that some of its proposals would amount to price controls on the pharmaceutical industry, which could slow down innovations.

The chamber has supported the Trump administration on judicial appointees, deregulation, tax and energy issues.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Wendy Benjaminson, Gregory Mott

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.