Todd Tiahrt


William Todd Tiahrt is an American politician who was the U.S. Representative for from 1995 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district encompasses 11 counties in the south central region of the state, including the city of Wichita. He was succeeded by Republican Mike Pompeo.
Tiahrt ran unsuccessfully in 2010 for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback. By that time, he had earned an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association for a fourth time. He lost to fellow Republican U.S. Representative Jerry Moran of Hays, Kansas, 50%–45%. After the primary election, Tiahrt endorsed Moran for the general election.
Tiahrt twice sought to regain his house seat. In 2014 he ran against Mike Pompeo in the Republican primary but was defeated. Then, in 2017, after Pompeo vacated the seat to become President Donald Trump's CIA director, Tiahrt sought the Republican nomination for the special election to fill it, but came in third, losing to Kansas Treasurer Ron Estes.

Early life, education and career

Tiahrt was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, the son of Marcine and Wilbur E. Tiahrt. He attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology before earning a bachelor's degree from Evangel College in 1975, and received a M.B.A. from Southwest Missouri State University in 1989. He was a teacher at Kansas Newman College and Evangel College and worked for Boeing as a proposal manager.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Tiahrt was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 1992. After only one term, he won the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District and was elected in an upset over 18-year Democratic incumbent Dan Glickman.
One factor in the win was the 1990s reapportionment, in which Hutchinson and surrounding Reno County were shifted to the "Big 1st" District. Hutchinson was replaced with more reliably Republican Montgomery County. After a tough reelection bid in 1996, Tiahrt was reelected to the U.S. House six more times with little difficulty, before his unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2010.

Committee assignments

Tiahrt is the author of the Tiahrt Amendment which prohibits the National Tracing Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from releasing information from its firearms trace database to anyone other than a law enforcement agency or prosecutor in connection with a criminal investigation.
This precludes gun trace data from being used in academic research of gun use in crime. Additionally, the law blocks any data legally released from being admissible in civil lawsuits against gun sellers or manufacturers. Some groups, including the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, believe that having further access to the ATF database would help municipal police departments track down sellers of illegal guns and curb crime. These groups are trying to undo the Tiahrt Amendment.
Numerous police organizations oppose the Tiahrt Amendment, such as the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Conversely, the Tiahrt Amendment is supported by the National Rifle Association, and the Fraternal Order of Police. The NRA has claimed that undoing the Tiahrt Amendment would lead to a rash of lawsuits against gun dealers.
In their 2010 letter of appreciation on behalf of the NRA Political Victory Fund and the 50,000 NRA members in Kansas, Tiart was honored with a 4th consecutive congressional race A+ NRA rating for his contributions to the pro-gun efforts.
Tiart had earned the highest rating, by "voting for every pro-gun bill." This included "critical pro-gun reforms" like the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act ; "legislation to expand Right-to-Carry to national parks and wildlife refuges", the Tiahrt Amendment to reform the ATF, and "legislation to restore" Second Amendment rights to Washington, DC. The A+ ranking took into consideration the letter he submitted to court briefs that he signed as a "critical friend of the court briefs" in the 2008 landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home, and that Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and requirement that lawfully-owned rifles and shotguns be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock" violated this guarantee. and the 2010 SC case McDonald v. Chicago which found that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against the states, clearing up any uncertainty left in the wake of the Heller case.

Tiahrt-Bilbray Bill Fairness for American Students Act

A bill was introduced by Tiahrt and Congressman Brian Bilbray called the Fairness for American Students Act that would close a loophole in current law that several states have used to provide lower-cost college tuition to illegal immigrants compared to tuition rates U.S. citizens from neighboring states have to pay. Kansas and Nebraska are two of the states that currently offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

Political positions

Abortion

Tiahrt has opposed measures to sanction government-funded abortions. In July 2009, he drew criticism from the Kansas Democratic Party when he suggested that President Barack Obama's mother might have aborted him if she had had access to government-paid abortion services. Tiahrt posited that tax funding of abortion would "encourage women who are single parents, living below the poverty level, to have the opportunity for a free abortion. If you take that scenario and apply it to many of the great minds we have today, who would we have been deprived of? Our president grew up in those similar circumstances. If that financial incentive was in place, is it possible that his mother may have taken advantage of it?"
Tiahrt applied the same suggestion to Clarence Thomas, who was born in poverty and reared mainly by his grandfather. "Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court justice, if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we would be denied his great mind?" Tiahrt said.

Local control

Tiahrt was cited as responsible for preventing the City of Washington D.C., from spending its own disease prevention funds for HIV and Hepatitis C-fighting needle exchange programs from 1998 through 2007.

Comments on the TSA

On November 23, 2010, Tiahrt spoke in Wichita against recent TSA security measures and how they affect citizens' privacy.

Stimulus spending

Tiahrt voted against the 2009 Stimulus Bill in the House and spoke against the stimulus in the House, planning to introduce an act to repeal the stimulus.

Personal life

Tiahrt and his wife Vicki had three children, Jessica, John and Luke. On July 24, 2004, the Tiahrts' youngest child, sixteen year-old Luke, died of an apparent suicide by gunshot at the family home in Virginia.
The family established the Luke Tiahrt Memorial Fund to provide grants to organizations that benefits teenagers.

Electoral history