Bill Frist is a politician and physician from Tennessee, he became U. Senate majority leader in January, after Trent Lott resigned the post amid a furor over racially provocative remarks he made in December at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration. President Bush looked to Frist, a relative newcomer to politics who is known for his calm demeanor and his organizational skills, to promote Medicare reform. .
First elected to the U.S. Senate on November 8, 1994, Frist was the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928. On November 7, 2000, Bill Frist was elected to a second term in the United States Senate by the largest margin ever received by a candidate for statewide election in the history of Tennessee. So he is obviously well respected by the voters.
Born and raised in Nashville, Frist graduated in 1974 from Princeton University where he specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Because he specialized in health care policy, he should be qualified for information on Medicare. In 1978 he graduated with honors from Harvard Medical School and spent the next seven years in surgical training. He is board certified in both general surgery and heart surgery. .
Bill Frist's published record is relatively large, on both the issue of Medicare and in general. Frist has written more than 100 articles, chapters, and abstracts on medical research and five books: Transplant, which examines the social and ethical issues of transplantation and organ donation; Grand Rounds in Transplantation; Tennessee Senators, 1911-2001: Portraits of Leadership in a Century of Change; When Every Moment Counts, a family guide on bioterrorism; and Good People Beget Good People. .
Frist rose rapidly through Senate leadership. In 2000, he was unanimously elected chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for the 107th Congress and in December 2002 was unanimously elected Majority Leader of the U.