RNLA Spotlight: Senator Pat Toomey

Senator PatToomey will address the RNLA at the Capitol Hill Club on June 27 at noon. Senator Toomey and his wife Kris reside in Zionsville, Pennsylvania with their three children Bridget, Patrick and Duncan. He graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Government and previously was a member of the House of Representatives where he promised to only serve three-terms, which he fulfilled. After leaving the House of Representatives, Toomey served as President of the Club for Growth until he was elected to the United States Senate in 2010. He also has owned and operated a small restaurant chain in the Lehigh Valley and worked in the financial services industry.

Since coming to Washington Senator Toomey has been a leader on economic, financial services, and budget issues. He is known throughout the halls of Congress as a champion of fiscal responsibility. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that he has emerged as "a leading voice on money matters."
He helped write and enact the bipartisan JOBS Act, which cuts regulatory burdens on small and medium-sized businesses making it easier for them to raise capital and create jobs.

Currently, Senator Toomey serves on the Finance; Banking; Budget; and Joint Economic committees. Additionally, he is the chairman of the Senate Steering Committee - the coalition of Republican senators that advocates for innovative, conservative policies.

Senator Toomey has also been one of the leading voices in the Senate regarding the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. Speaking ahead of Tuesday's Senate Finance Committee hearing on the IRS matter, the Pennsylvania Republican and member of the committee said the appearance that the IRS misdeeds were politically motivated may poison the well of the already sparse congressional goodwill.

“I certainly would hate to see us unable to make progress where it's important to make progress,” Toomey told a conference call of Pennsylvania journalists. “But I have to tell you, the legislative process does require trust and the process of reaching an agreement requires mutual trust and you have an administration plagued with scandals, it does make it more difficult. My hope is the president would handle this properly.”

Nobody should be under the illusion that this is some kind of innocuous screening,” he said. “This was done with the intent, and in fact the result, of long delays.” Such delays in granting tax-exempt status, he said, prompted many conservative groups to give up on the process.

And where initial inquiries into the IRS' actions did not indicate specific responsibility, Toomey said he hoped the committee would ferret out the names of the administrators who called for the specialized treatment.

“The Inspector General's report doesn't specify who initiated the first round of screenings, nor who authorized the resumption of screenings,” he said. “But we ought to know who authorized the IRS to begin screening conservative groups as they sought an application for tax exempt status.”

Join the RNLA in DC and hear Senator Toomey speak on these and many important issues this Thursday.