Senator Jim Talent, Vice-Chairman

United States Senator Jim Talent was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1984, at the age of 28, where he served for eight years and succeeded in passing numerous pieces of legislation, including legislative efforts to build roads, toughen drug laws, secure taxpayer rights and reduce taxes. At the age of 32, Senator Talent was unanimously chosen by his colleagues as the Minority Leader, the highest ranking Republican leadership position in the Missouri House. He served in that capacity until 1992 when he was elected to Congress to represent Missouri's Second District.

Senator Talent served Missouri in the U.S. House for eight years, from 1993 to 2001.

As a freshman congressman, he introduced the Real Welfare Reform Act of 1994, which subsequently became the basis for the historic bipartisan welfare reform bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. The legislation has resulted in 4.2 million people moving from dependency on the government to jobs and self-sufficiency.

Senator Talent served for eight years on the House Armed Services Committee. In that capacity, he waged a long battle to protect America’s armed forces from cuts in size and funding. Also as a freshman, Senator Talent formed a special congressional committee to address the decline in readiness of America’s military.

Senator Talent was a member of the House Armed Services Committee in 1997 when, in order to save money, the committee attempted to discontinue production of the F-18 Super Hornet. The effort to discontinue the aircraft succeeded in subcommittee, but Senator Talent led an initiative against his own Party leadership to restore the aircraft in full committee. That effort succeeded on a close, bipartisan vote, as the full committee overruled its own Chairman and subcommittee - a highly unusual outcome in Congress.

For eight years, Senator Talent served on the House Small Business Committee. In 1997, he was named Chairman of the committee where he was the youngest Chairman in Congress. In that capacity he fought successfully for tax and regulatory relief for small business people across America. In particular, he succeeded in permitting small business men and women to deduct the cost of their health insurance, restoring the tax deduction for those operating businesses at home, helping women start their own businesses and bolstering loan programs to help individuals who want to start their own small businesses. During this period the Congress also took the first steps towards eliminating the estate tax - one of Senator Talent’s priorities.

He twice passed out of the House Association Health Plans legislation that would permit small business people to join together and buy health insurance through their trade associations - legislation that would reduce by millions the number of uninsured people in the country without any cost to the taxpayer.

Under Senator Talent’s leadership, the Small Business Committee became the most bipartisan in the House. Senator Talent constantly promoted the idea that small business is the avenue of opportunity for people of all backgrounds and socio-economic status. In addition, as Chairman, Senator Talent was scrupulous in respecting the prerogatives of all the members of the Committee, including those of the other Party. As a result, the Committee passed an overwhelming number of bills without a single, dissenting Democrat vote, which made Senator Talent’s Committee one of the most effective in the 106th Congress.

For six years Senator Talent served on the House Education and Workforce Committee. He was a consistent advocate of safe schools and empowering parents and teachers through greater local control. In 2000, Senator Talent passed legislation to allow public school authorities to remove from the classroom students who possessed or used illegal drugs or committed aggravated assault in school. He also led the fight on the House floor for opportunity scholarships - legislation which would have given poor students and their parents the chance to escape failing schools in the urban core.

Senator Talent joined with Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), Rep. Floyd Flake (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) to design the most comprehensive anti-poverty initiatives ever considered by Congress. The Community Renewal Act was crafted to empower local neighborhood groups, pastors and community leaders by providing the tools they need to create good jobs, decent housing, new businesses and safe neighborhoods. After five years of hard work, the legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton who lauded Senator Talent for his bipartisan efforts to reduce poverty in America.

During his service in Congress, Senator Talent received numerous awards and honors:

• National Association of Women Business Owners’ – National Public Policy Award;
• Department of Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars – Legislator of the Year;
• International Franchise Association – Legislator of the Year;
• Independent Electrical Contracts – Legislator of the Year;
• Vietnam Veterans of America – Lifetime Achievement Award;
• Americans for Tax Reform – Taxpayer Hero Award;
• 60 Plus Association – Guardian of Senior’s Rights; and
• Missouri Farm Bureau – Friend of the Farmer Award.

In 2002, Missourians elected Jim Talent to the U.S. Senate where he served for four years, from 2002 to 2007.

During his tenure in the Senate, he served on four key committees: The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee; the Senate Armed Services Committee; the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and the Senate Aging Committee.

Senator Talent served as the Chairman of the Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee and the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Marketing, Inspection, and Product Promotion. In addition, Senator Talent was a member of President Bush’s Export Council and he was selected to serve as a Deputy Whip.

Senator Talent introduced the Small Business Health Fairness Act to provide health care to small business owners and workers through Association Health Plans (AHPs). The bill would provide health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans by allowing small business men and women to purchase health care plans for themselves and their employees through their trade associations.

In December 2003, Senator Talent was a leader in helping pass the Medicare Prescription Drug plan which is now providing affordable prescription drug coverage to millions of America’s seniors, many for the first time.

To help the more than 70,000 individuals, mostly African-Americans, suffering from Sickle Cell Disease, Senator Talent introduced the Sickle Cell Treatment Act to expand treatment and services for patients with the disease. The legislation has been called the most significant Sickle Cell Disease legislation to be introduced in 20 years.

As a member of the Energy Committee, Senator Talent supported a pro-jobs, pro-growth energy bill to help stimulate the economy, reduce energy prices and increase our energy independence. Senator Talent led the fight to add a Renewable Fuels Standard to the Energy bill against the oil companies who opposed the plan. Because of Senator Talent’s efforts, oil companies are now required to add at least 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel to the nation’s fuel supply by 2012.

Working with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Senator Talent succeeded in passing the toughest, most comprehensive anti-meth bill ever enacted into law.  The Combat Meth Act, restricts the products needed to cook methamphetamine.  It also provides critical tools to help law enforcement fight meth in our communities.

Senator Talent was the chief sponsor of bipartisan anti-predatory lending legislation, which was signed into law in 2006, to cap the annual percentage interest rate for payday loans to military service personnel from an average of around 390% to 36%.

During his service in the Senate, Senator Talent received numerous awards and honors:

• American Chiropractic Association – 2006 Military Health Care Leadership Award;
• The United States Chamber of Commerce – 2004 Spirit of Enterprise Award;
• NAACP Jefferson City, Missouri, Branch – 2005 President’s Award for his sponsorship of the “Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act”;
• The National Association of Community Health Centers – 2004 Community Health Defender Award;
• The National Association of Community Health Centers and the Missouri Primary Care Association’s – 2006 Distinguished Community Health Superhero Award;
• The Missouri Corn Growers Association and the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council – 2005 Appreciation Award for his leadership in passing the 7.5 billion gallon Renewable Fuels Standard included in the energy bill;
• The American Society of Hematology – 2005 Top Honor for Leadership for his work on the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Act;
• The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis’ – 2006 Outstanding Leadership Award;
• The National Breast Cancer Coalition – 2006 Annual Advocacy Conference Congressional Award; and
• The Missouri Corn Association’s – 2005 Friend of Corn Growers Award.

Currently, Senator Talent serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Washington, DC, based Heritage Foundation where he specializes in military readiness issues and welfare reform. One of Senator Talent’s objectives at the Heritage Foundation is to raise awareness, within Congress and throughout the country, of the importance of assuring stable, robust funding of America’s military, in peace as well as war.

Senator Jim Talent was born and raised in Des Peres, Missouri. He graduated from Kirkwood High School in 1973 and attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he received the Arnold J. Lien Prize as the most outstanding undergraduate in political science. He graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Chicago Law School in 1981 and clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals from 1982 through 1983.

Jim and his wife, Brenda, were married in 1984. Jim and Brenda have three children: Michael, Kate and Chrissy. The family lives in Chesterfield, Missouri.