Jan Schoonmaker

Jan Schoonmaker serves as Vice President at Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc. (VSA). Schoonmaker came to VSA after a long career with the United States House of Representatives where he was Legislative Director for Representative Lindy Boggs of Louisiana and a member of the associate staff of the House Committee on Appropriations. As Representative Boggs' legislative director, Schoonmaker was responsible for advising her on issues ranging from budget, defense, and energy to taxation, trade, and transportation. He provided staff support to Representative Boggs in her legislative efforts to guarantee equal access to commercial credit for businesswomen, to secure passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act, to improve the competitive status of the American merchant marine and shipbuilding, and to enhance U.S. energy security by developing oil and gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf. In addition, Schoonmaker worked with Representative Boggs on efforts to deepen the Mississippi River to provide improved navigation access to the Port of New Orleans, to design and build essential hurricane protection and flood control for communities of coastal Louisiana, to develop a comprehensive strategy to respond to the growing rate of loss of Louisiana coastal wetlands, and to strengthen the research capabilities of the state's universities. As a member of the associate staff of the House Appropriations Committee, Schoonmaker worked with members of Congress, agency officials and other interested parties to evaluate budget requests submitted to the committee for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as the legislative branch. He had the responsibility for monitoring the budgets of the Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation, Treasury Departments, and various independent agencies. Schoonmaker was Representative Boggs's liaison to the Democratic National Committee when she chaired the 1976 Democratic Convention in New York City and when she served on the Platform Drafting Committee in 1980. He worked with officials to coordinate local arrangements for the 1988 Republican Convention and the 1990 Democratic Leadership Council Conference in New Orleans. He served as her liaison to the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. A native of New Orleans, Schoonmaker received a Bachelor of Arts from Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, and a juris doctorate from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar.