$$ Toomey's Committees $$

Committee Assignments

Senator Toomey serves on three committees in the U.S. Senate:

Finance Committee

The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to: taxation and other revenue measures generally, and those relating to the insular possessions; bonded debt of the United States; customs, collection districts, and ports of entry and delivery; reciprocal trade agreements; tariff and import quotas, and related matters thereto; the transportation of dutiable goods; deposit of public moneys; general revenue sharing; health programs under the Social Security Act, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and other health and human services programs financed by a specific tax or trust fund; and national social security.

***Finance Subcommittees

    Chairman - Subcommittee on Health Care

    Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy; and

    Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight;

Recent Legislation in the Finance Committee:

H.R. 22: Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

**Amendments by Toomey: 

Toomey/Warner #1 - Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act

H.R. 5021: The Preserving America’s Transit and Highways Act
**Amendments by Toomey:
Toomey #1 - To reserve federal transportation funds for national
infrastructure priorities
Toomey #2 - To ease federal burdens on state and local governments
recovering from catastrophic events
Toomey #3 - To rescind funds for high speed rail projects and use that money to fund national infrastructure projects

S. 2260: Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act
**Amendments by Toomey:
Menendez/Toomey #1 - Small Business Inflation Protection Amendment
Menendez/Toomey #2 - Expansion of Small Business Capital Gains Exemption To be Provided
Menendez/Toomey/Carper #3 - Small Business R&D Partnerships Amendment
Thune/Toomey #4 - To make Permanent the Section 179 Small Business Expensing Limits
at $500,000/$2M that Expired at the end of 2013
Thune/Toomey #8 - To Repeal the Federal Estate Tax
Toomey/Hatch/Burr/Cornyn/Crapo/ Roberts/Portman/Isakson #1 -Save Good Paying American Jobs and Encourage Life-Saving Innovation by Delaying the Medical Device Tax for Two Years
Toomey/Hatch/Isakson/Roberts/Crapo #2Save Good Paying American Jobs and Encourage Life-Saving
Toomey #3 - Eliminate Crony Capitalist Energy Tax Credits
Toomey #4 - Reform the Employer Wage Credit for Activated Military Reservists 
Toomey/Casey/Roberts #5 - Preserving Access to Orphan Drugs Revenue Neutral
Toomey #6 - Permanently Extend 50% Bonus Depreciation
Toomey #7 - Increase Veterans WOTC and Eliminate Crony Capitalist Handouts
Toomey #8 - Eliminate Crony Capitalist Handouts and Increase the Deduction for College Tuition and Teachers' Classroom Expenses
Toomey #9 - Protect Bald Eagles from Wind Turbines

These are some of the most recent pieces of legislation that the Finance Committee as focused on. Toomey has added amendments to each of the bills in order to put his mark on the legislation. As seen in Bill H.R. 22, he only made one amendment which either shows the lack of importance of the bill either Toomey or his constituents to which there would be little opportunity to credit claim, or that Toomey was uninterested or knew little about the bill. Therefore, he made at least one amendment in order to be able to say he had a part in the legislation if the importance of the issue would ever increase. On bills such as S. 2260, he made numerous amendments which shows the importance of the bill to Toomey himself, as well as his want to make a lot of credit claiming on the bill. This could mean it is an important bill for his state and deals with issues that are salient to his constituents, or that with his experience and knowledge on the issue, he can make changes that could benefit the bill or benefit his state. 

Budget Committee

This is a newer Senate Committee having been started in 1974 under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The Budget Committee is responsible for drafting Congress’ annual budget plan and for monitoring the federal budget.
     
----In this first two years in the Senate, Sen. Toomey introduced a 10-year balanced budget proposal. His idea received more votes in the Senate than any other budget plan in 2011.

The Budget Committee deals with balancing the budget as well as investigating issues with the federal budget. Some of their active investigations include:

• 7/1/14  --  Sessions Asks Why Medicare Agency Can’t Prevent Fraud, Recover Known Improper Payments
• 5/1/14  --  Sessions Investigates Disability Benefits Being Awarded On Basis Of Inability To Speak English
• 4/29/14 --  Sessions Seeks Missing Details On Taxpayer Support For Controversial Solar Company 
• 4/3/14  --  Sessions Writes To Small Business Administration About Cost Of Loan Program

These investigations are headed by the ranking member of the committee. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Although, he is the one who wrote these letters or made these press releases on the issue, the other Senators in the Budget Committee such as Toomey, undoubtedly help in the investigation and would take part in getting credit for the work they did to help fix the problem they are looking into. This appears to be an important committee for Toomey to be on because it is ranked in about the middle for level of importance among Senate committees but it deals with the U.S. budget which is definitely a salient issue for constituents.  

Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee

This committee manages legislation in areas of jurisdiction that include, but are not limited to: banking, insurance, financial markets, securities, housing, urban development and mass transit, international trade and finance, and economic policy.

***Banking Subcommittees

    Chairman - Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection;

    Securities, Insurance and Investment; and

    Economic Policy

Legislation Sponsored by Toomey Before the Banking Committee:

• S. 264   -  A bill to require a full audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks by the Comptroller General of the United States, and for other purposes.

• S. 372   -  A bill to ensure access to certain information for financial services industry regulators, and for other purposes.

• S. 423   -  A bill to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to provide an exception to the annual written privacy notice requirement.

• S. 482   -  A bill to increase from $10,000,000,000 to $50,000,000,000 the threshold figure at which regulated depository institutions are subject to direct examination and reporting requirements of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and for other purposes.

• S. 576   -  A bill to increase the threshold for disclosures required by the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to compensatory benefit plans, and for other purposes.

• S. 682   -  A bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act to modify the Truth in Lending Act to modify the definitions of a mortgage originator and a high-cost mortgage.

As we have seen as we study legislation almost all legislation presented by Members of Congress dies in the committees. Toomey has presented numerous bills in this particular committee but he most likely plans on few to none of them actually going anywhere. He does this however, to show voters that he is working. Most people do not realize that when he says he presented a bill all it means is that it is put into the committee and most do not know that that bill may not even be discussed on the Senate floor let alone get voted on. This enables Toomey, as well as all Senators, to please constituents on numerous issues that they are concerned about by forming legislation to show the issue is important, even though it may not be important to the Senator and they may have no intention on the bill ever being enacted.





Serving on these committees provides Toomey with an opportunity for a lot of credit claiming. The Finance Committee is considered the most prominent committee in the Senate. Therefore, by serving on this committee Toomey increase his status and prestige in Congress which could potentially gain him favors from other Senators in the future. Also, this prominent status can be used to show constituents that he has influence in the Senate and that they need to reelect him if they want their interests looked out for. Toomey has experience dealing with finance from previous employment with Chemical Bank, where he was involved in currency swap transactions and Morgan, Grenfell & Co., where he dealt in multiple foreign currencies, interest rates, and currency-related derivatives. This experience is a possible reason as to why Toomey received his appointment to his three committees which deal mostly with finance and budgeting. He has knowledge in these areas and has a strong financial and business background which may entice others on the committees to listen to his suggestions and take his advice. His strong loyalty to the Republican party and its stances on issues make him a good appointment by the party to these committees, as they will be able to rely on him to "stick to party lines". This will benefit the needs of the party as well as the needs of Toomey since he gets to take credit for the work he does on these committees which will aid him in future reelection campaigns.