Timothy J. Roemer

Infobox_Congressman
name = Timothy J. Roemer


date of birth = birth date and age|1956|10|30
place of birth = South Bend, Indiana
state = Indiana
district = 3rd
term = 1991–2003
preceded = John Hiler
succeeded = Mark Souder
nationality = American
party = Democratic
religion = Roman Catholic
spouse = Sally Roemer
children = Patrick "Pat" Hunter Roemer, Matthew Bennett Roemer, Sarah Kathryn Roemer, Grace Elizabeth Roemer

Timothy John "Tim" Roemer (born October 30, 1956) is an American political figure.

A Democrat, Roemer served in the United States House of Representatives from 1991–2003 before becoming the president of the Center for National Policy (CNP), a Washington, D.C-based national security think tank.

Early life and education

Roemer was born in 1956 in South Bend, Indiana. He is the son-in-law of Bennett Johnston Jr., Democrat who served as a U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1972 to 1997.

Roemer graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame; his 1985 dissertation was titled "The Senior Executive Service: Retirement and Public Personnel Policy."

Political career

Roemer served on the staffs of U.S. Representative John Brademas of Indiana (1978–1979) and U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini of Arizona (1985–1989).

He won election to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1990, served in the from 1991 to 2003 from Indiana's 3rd congressional district. While in the House, Roemer served on the Intelligence, Education and Workforce, and Science committees. He did not run for reelection in 2002.

Roemer voted in favor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and the Caribbean Basin Initiative. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), feeling it provided incentives for businesses to move out of the country (as may have happened in his district). Roemer voted against presidential fast-track trade promotion authority, believing that the United States should have been stricter in its enforcement of existing agreements.

Much of Roemer's efforts during his congressional career were related to improving education. He was the principal author the Ed-Flex bill, which encouraged states to seek innovative approaches to education. Roemer was the chief sponsor of the "Transition to Teaching" bill that helped address teacher shortages by recruiting and training professionals to become teachers. Roemer was also the lead sponsor of the five-year reauthorization of Higher Education Act, which reduced interest rates on student loans, increased Pell Grants, increased funding for teacher training, and expanded aid to families.

Roemer was a principal sponsor of the AmeriCorps national service program, and a co-author of a bill to expand Head Start services to provide childcare coverage for women moving from welfare to work. He co-wrote legislation on reauthorize Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, wrote an amendment to tax relief legislation for teacher certification of professionals in outside fields. He co-authored "School-to-Work" legislation to help non-college-bound high school students learn skills to prepare them for the workforce.

In his final term in Congress, Roemer was instrumental in passing the No Child Left Behind Act and pushed for full funding for the program.

Roemer was one of the first members of Congress to call for a Cabinet-level federal executive departments to oversee national security, and was an original sponsor of the legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security. Eventually he opposed the revisions proposed by the Bush administration, because of concerns about bureaucratic inefficiencies, and voted against the creation of DHS. Roemer advocated a "civilian reserve corps" to train more fluent speakers in foreign languages for the Intelligence Community. Roemer was an original sponsor of bioterrorism legislation and legislation aimed at creating the 9/11 Commission, upon which he later served.

Post-House of Representatives

Roemer was a member of the 9/11 Commission. He was a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee (gaining the support of Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid) but lost to Howard Dean, who had unsuccessfully sought the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

Roemer was criticized as too conservative for the post, due to his pro-life stance on abortion and his oft-mentioned vote against the Clinton economic plan in 1993. Roemer is a moderate Democrat, voting more liberally on some foreign policy issues and conservatively on social issues.

Roemer was considered a possible candidate for governor of Indiana in 2008, against the incumbent Republican Mitch Daniels, but did not choose to run.

Roemer endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries and campaigned vigorously for him, particularly in his home state of Indiana, where he joined Lee H. Hamilton in support of Obama. Roemer's moderate, bipartisan politics, and national security experience led to speculation (from Chris Cillizza and Ben Smith) that Roemer was considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Obama. [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/05/the_friday_line_veepstakes_1.html?nav=rss_blog] [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9394.html]

Roemer is a distinguished scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He was a partner at Johnston and Associates, a public and legislative affairs consultancy, before he became president of the Center for National Policy.

Roemer now serves on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, a bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2007 as an outgrowth of the reforms put forth by the 9/11 Commission to examine how the United States can best address this threat to our national security.

In addition, Roemer serves on the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Presidential Task force on Combating the Ideology of Radical Extremism, and the [http://www.visionfortheparks.org National Parks Second Century Commission] .

Personal life

Roemer married the former Sally Johnston, the daughter of former U.S. Senator for Louisiana Bennett Johnston Jr., in 1999. They have four children: Patrick Hunter Roemer (whose bff is KELLY ROGERS), Matthew Bennett Roemer, Sarah Kathryn Roemer, and Grace Elizabeth Roemer. Roemer lives in Great Falls, Virginia. He is Roman Catholic and attends St. Thomas a' Becket Catholic Church.

External links

* [http://www.cnponline.org/ht/d/sp/i/1321/pid/1321 Official profile] from the Center for National Policy

Category:9/11 Commission