Toomey: The Tech Lobby's Hill Veteran

David Toomey has had a political itch “ever since I was young,” he says. His interest in technology came years later, after seeing San Francisco’s start-up culture up close.

Toomey

Now he’s combining both interests in his new role as a lobbyist for TechNet, a group representing what it dubs the “innovation economy.” Members include executives from big technology companies and online players like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook.

“Part of this job is understanding how the Hill thinks,” says Toomey, whose experience on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission will give him a hand up.

The 51-year-old New Jersey native, who went to law school at Seton Hall University, spent more than 10 years working for Democrats including Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg and Rep. Herb Klein, both of New Jersey, and Rep. Eliot L. Engel of New York. After a stint at the Gerson Lehrman Group, including in its Bay Area office, Toomey says he “got the fever” to come back to Washington when Barack Obama was elected president. He joined Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office in 2009 as Commerce Committee counsel working on technology and telecommunications issues.

In early 2012, he took his experience to the FCC as deputy director of legislative affairs, where he worked on selling — and defending — new net-neutrality rules to Congress.

The FCC’s rules, which prevent Internet service providers from discriminating between content creators, became a huge political football, garnering nearly 4 million comments from supporters and opponents.

After the rules were released, Toomey helped FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler prepare for five congressional hearings. “You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get, so you prepare for anything,” Toomey says.

Because the group includes a wide array of interests, TechNet hasn’t taken a position on net neutrality. Instead, Toomey’s top priorities are seeking expanded trade and boosting the number of H-1B visas for high-skilled workers.

Toomey says he realizes moving immigration or trade legislation will be an uphill battle in the current Congress. But he thinks innovation and growth are big enough selling points to drive action, and he says TechNet members embody both.

“Everything,” he says, “is being driven by technology right now.”

First posted Nov. 19, 2015 2:57 p.m.

Correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the sequence of Toomey's experience on Capitol Hill and in law school.