Bio
1 page @ 71K

U.S. Senator Wayne Allard is a Colorado veterinarian committed to cutting taxes, eliminating the deficit, returning power to state and local governments and assuring the security of America both at home and abroad.

Consistent with his belief that elected officials should be citizen legislators, Senator Allard spends a majority of his time in Colorado. Since 1991, he has conducted more than 700 town meetings across Colorado, visiting each of Colorado’s 64 counties several times, while maintaining a better than 99 percent voting record in the Senate. He also has led by example by being the most frugal member of the Colorado delegation and has returned more than $3 million in unspent office funds to the U.S. Treasury since being elected to federal office in 1991.

Senator Allard was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1943 and raised on a ranch near Walden, Colorado. He received his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University in 1968. While completing veterinary school, Allard married Joan Malcolm who received her degree in microbiology, also from CSU. They built their veterinary practice in Loveland, the Allard Animal Hospital, from scratch. The Allards raised their two daughters, Christi and Cheryl, in Loveland and have five grandsons.

Senator Allard ran his veterinary practice full-time, while representing Larimer and Weld Counties in the Colorado State Senate, from 1983 to 1990. He was best known during his time in the Colorado State Senate for sponsoring the state law that limits state legislative sessions to 120 days, preserving the concept of a “citizen-legislator.”

Senator Allard served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado’s 4th Congressional District from 1991 to 1996, when he was elected to the United States Senate. As a Colorado Congressman, Allard served on the Joint Committee on Congressional Reform, which recommended many of the reforms that were incorporated into the Contract with America. These reforms were among the first legislative items passed by the Republican controlled Congress in 1995. Senator Allard was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002.

In December of 2004, Senator Allard was appointed to serve on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee in the 109th Congress, where he will be working to shape the nation’s spending priorities and to ensure that Colorado’s people and projects receive federal support where it is most needed. He is chairman of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee.

He serves as well on the Senate Budget Committee. As a fiscal conservative, Senator Allard believes that Congress must reduce wasteful spending and strive for a balanced budget.

He is also a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where he is the Chairman of the Housing and Transportation Subcommittee; additionally, he serves on the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and the Subcommittee on Securities and Investments. During the first session of the 108th Congress, Senator Allard successfully secured the passage of the American Dream Down Payment Act, which will help thousand of first-time home buyers realize the American dream of home ownership.

In January 2005, Senator Allard was reappointed by Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell to serve as a Deputy Majority Whip. He is also the Chairman of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, and the Space Caucus.