Laurence Francis Rooney III is an American politician and diplomat who is the U.S. Representative for. A Republican, he served as the United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 2005 until 2008. Representative Rooney has earned a 95.90% Lifetime Score from the American Conservative Union. Rooney is the former CEO of Rooney Holdings, an investment and holding company based in Naples, Florida. With a net worth of $22.6 million, Rooney is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. In October 2019, Rooney announced that he will not run for re-election to Congress in 2020.
Rooney is a major Republican donor, having contributed to the campaign of George W. Bush. Rooney served on the fundraising team of Connie Mack IV. Rooney donated $1 million to Restore Our Future, Mitt Romney's Super PAC, and Rooney hosted a fundraiser for Romney in Rooney's Naples, Florida home. In 2015, Rooney gave over $2 million to Jeb Bush's Super PAC.
U.S. House of Representatives
2016 campaign
In May 2016, incumbent Republican congressman Curt Clawson announced he would not run for a third full term. Soon afterward, Rooney entered the Republican primary to succeed him—the real contest in this heavily Republican district. Rooney spent $4 million of his own money and far outspent his opponents in an election that was shortened due to the timing of Clawson's late announcement. In the August 30 primary, he defeated Sanibel Councilman Chauncey Goss and radio personality Dan Bongino. Rooney received an unprecedented endorsement from Rick Scott, who is his neighbor in the Naples, Florida Port Royal community. As expected, he won handily in the November general election to become only the fifth person to represent this district since its creation in 1983.
Tenure
Rooney was sworn in January 3, 2017. He is a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee and the Climate Solutions Caucus. In 2017, Rooney proposed the Pell Performance Act, alongside Ralph Norman, which proposes that Pell Grants turn into Stafford loans if students fail to graduate college within six years of being awarded the grant.
Committee assignments
Committee on Education and the Workforce
*Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
*Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
Committee on Foreign Affairs
*Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats
*Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Joint Economic Committee
Political positions
Domestic issues
Education
Rooney is in favor of having Pell Grants turn into Stafford Loans if students who were awarded the grants do not graduate within six years of receiving their award.
As of 2017, Rooney has a "B" rating from the NRA, indicating a voting record that generally supports gun rights. As a Congressman, Rooney has voted in favor of several pieces of legislation to expand gun rights, including a yes vote on , which would enable concealed carry reciprocity among all States if and when it is signed into law. In March 2017, Rooney voted in favor of the , which, if signed into law, will allow veterans who are considered "mentally incompetent" to purchase ammunition and firearms unless declared a danger by a judge. Rooney also voted in favor of , which successfully used the Congressional Review Act to block implementation of an Obama-era Amendment to the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 that was aimed at preventing the mentally-infirm from legally purchasing firearms. Following the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Rooney announced a proposal to limit mass shootings. The proposal includes supporting the Fix NICS Act of 2017, mandating background checks for every firearm purchase, and enacting a system to provide a legal justification for temporarily confiscating firearms from those deemed a threat to themselves or others. Rooney also supports a mandatory 3-day waiting period for all gun sales, a ban on bump stocks, and raising the minimum age to purchase any firearm to 21. Additionally, his proposal included making schools more secure and hiring veterans and retired law enforcement officers as armed security guards for schools. Rooney has also expressed support for the controversial idea of arming teachers to confront school shooters. However, in response to questions on if he would support reinstating the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, Rooney replied, "How willing are we to throw the Constitution out the window?" Rooney has stated that his support of any new gun control legislation is contingent on the inclusion of a rider of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.
On November 28, 2018, Rooney cointroduced the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2018, saying, "to let the free market price out coal, we should consider value pricing carbon. A revenue-neutral carbon fee is an efficient, market-driven incentive to move toward natural gas and away from coal, and to support emerging alternate sources of energy." He also cosponsored the 2019 version of the bill. In an op-ed published on Politico in September 2019, Rooney declared, "I’m a conservative Republican and I believe climate change is real. It’s time for my fellow Republicans in Congress to stop treating this environmental threat as something abstract and political and recognize that it’s already affecting their constituents in their daily lives." However, his voting record has not always been so pro-environment. He has voted to delay enactment of ozone standards, and to repeal a rule requiring energy companies to reduce waste and emissions.
Rooney is in favor of immigration reform. He has spoken out against Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. At the time of Rooney's stated position on DACA, a large majority of American citizens were in support of the program, including according to an August 31 through September 3, 2017 poll where 57% of self-identified Republican voters.
Social issues
Abortion
Rooney is opposed to terminating an unwanted pregnancy starting as early as conception. He is against using federal funding to pay for abortions and to fund Planned Parenthood.
Rooney sat on the board of the Tulsa, Oklahoma based petroleum and natural gas exploration and production company, Laredo Petroleum that was accused in 2012 of underpaying royalties to landowners of property where the company was conducting operations. The lawsuit, filed by Chieftain Royalty Company, alleged that "Laredo used its position as operator and as an oil and gas working interest owner to secretly underpay royalty due plaintiff and class members on production of gas and its constituents from the Oklahoma Well," and the company had been "unjustly enriched." Rooney owns 1 million shares of Laredo Petroleum and had been on the board since 2010. Despite denying the allegations made in the lawsuit, Laredo settled the claim for $6.6 million.
Deep state comments
Rooney has made statements suggesting that he believes in the existence of a Deep state in the United States. In a December 26, 2017 MSNBC interview, Rooney, while calling into question the integrity of the FBI and Justice department, who are conducting an investigationinto Russian State interference in the 2016 elections and any possible collusion between Russia and the Donald Trump presidential campaign along with any related crimes, alluded to a "Deep state", presumably seeking to undermine the Trump presidency. Rooney stated there ought to be a "purge" within those departments. Rooney suggested this is evidenced by the fact that there were isolated incidents among members of those agencies who were documented as having been demoted or, where relevant, removed from the Mueller probe for having expressed anti-Trump bias and/or pro-Hillary Clinton bias.
Advocacy of purging the FBI
Rooney attracted national attention in December 2017 when he suggested that the FBI be purged of agents that he believed were "politically compromised", and saying he felt "pretty frustrated" with FBI officials in their investigation of Trump; and by doing so, Rooney is putting himself squarely in the corner of Donald Trump, according to several sources.
