For ten years in the Senate, Mike Tongour served as chief of staff to the Senate GOP Whip (former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming), as Committee Counsel to what is now the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, and as Legislative Director for two US Senators (representing South Carolina and Wyoming).  His legislative skills were acknowledged in the leading Congressional publication, Roll Call, where he was regularly included in their list of the Fabulous Fifty – Congressional Staffers with Real Power. When he moved to the private sector, Legal Times, a DC based journal on law and lobbying, listed him as one of the top 10 most sought-after staffers to leave the Hill.

Mike is the founder and President of the TCH Group, a boutique firm which has been retained by a variety of Fortune 500 companies,  associations, municipalities, and non-profits  to formulate achievable, bipartisan, legislative strategies and to help their clients effectively implement those strategies. For nearly thirty years,  the firm has compiled a successful record in a variety of sectors particularly in the tax, energy, environmental, appropriations, civil/criminal justice,  and health policy areas.

In the Senate, Tongour worked closely with Senators and their staff and supervised the daily operations of the Whip’s office, including assisting in the vote counting duties of the Whip, and helping to coordinate and implement Senate floor strategy.    He is a member and a past President of RAMS, a 300+ member organization comprised of present and former GOP Staff Directors. He is well known for his expertise in the Federal legislative process and strategy.  He currently is a guest lecturer at his alma mater , the University of South Carolina in the Master’s in Public Administration program, and has also given lectures on the Federal legislative/regulatory/budget process to classes at American University, George Washington University, Georgetown University Law School, and Colby College.

He currently serves on the Board of the National Memorial to Women Who Worked on Homefront during World War II. He leads the DC/Maryland/Virginia Advisory Board to the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences and has been recognized as the College’s  Outstanding Alumnus. For ten years, he was an officer and served on the Board of the Lab School of Washington (a school for students with learning differences). He is a past Senior Warden and Vestry member at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church. He volunteers with the TCH Group-sponsored Northwest Little League Challengers baseball program, for athletes with physical and mental challenges. He is a long time, active member of the University Club of Washington where he serves on the Nominating Committee and Squash Committee.

Mr. Tongour is a native South Carolinian. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of South Carolina where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude. He also earned his law degree there and was selected for membership in the legal honorary societies: Order of the Coif and the Order of the Wig and Robe. He is nationally ranked squash player in his age group  and is a regular pickleball player as well. He and his wife, Lalie, have three children who are currently in college: Jack, Alec, and Stella Louise.

Contact:
holsclaw@tchgroup.com

Brad Holsclaw is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, where his mother, Bobbie, has served as one of the top county elected officials (County Clerk for Jefferson County) for over twenty years.   After attending the University of Louisville, Brad came to DC and worked for eleven years for three Senate Republican leaders as a Senior Legislative Advisor.  His duties included informing Senators and staff on matters concerning parliamentary procedure, the GOP Leader’s goals and strategy for pending legislation and amendments, and the Senate floor schedule. In that role, he established longtime relationships with Senators of both parties, Senate Committee staff directors, and leadership and floor staff.

Brad, for several years,  also volunteered to assist with logistics for Senator Charles Grassley’s August Ambassadors’  visits to the American  “heartland”,  intended to promote export and international trade opportunities for agriculture, manufacturing and services produced in Iowa.   On Brad’s departure from the Senate, Chairman Grassley issued a statement which thanked Brad for his loyal service  to the Senate and noted that “Holsclaw understands both the intricacies and the big picture of the legislative process.”

On leaving the Senate, Brad brought his significant legislative skills and the credibility he continued to enjoy on the Hill to the TCH Group, where he has now been a Partner for over twenty years .  He is involved in a variety of civic and charitable activities including serving as Vice President of his homeowners’ association’s Board of Directors, and Board Chair for the Cloverleaf Equine Center Polo Classic. He and his wife Shannon have two daughters, Sydney and Barbara Catherine.

Robert Mariner has worked with the TCH Group on several transportation projects in the past and in December 2020 formalized his affiliation with the firm as a Senior Transportation Policy Consultant. He has over 24 years of transportation experience including nearly 20 years at US DOT.  He service at DOT included  being the Deputy Director of the Office of Infrastructure Finance and Innovation.  He also served as the Program Manager for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant Program [now known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Transportation Discretionary Grants program]. In 2009, Robert directed the development of the TIGER discretionary grant program that was responsible for the implementation, administration, and delivery of more than 500 multi-modal projects totaling more than $8.0 billion in discretionary grants across the country.

Robert also served as a senior advisor at DOT on  project finance policy issues including Private Activity Bonds, Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) Loans, Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Loans, and the Title XI ship building grant program.   He served as a Congressional liaison for USDOT and FEMA during the Superstorm Sandy response.  Robert also drafted and negotiated surface transportation reauthorization provisions which were  included in laws leading to the formation of the TIGER discretionary grant program, the FASTLANE discretionary grant program, and the creation of the National Freight Advisory Committee.

Prior to joining USDOT, Robert spent six years as an Airport Environmental Planner and Program Manager.  He also served as an Environmental Engineer for the delivery of multiple environmental compliance documents for the US Air Force and the US Navy.

Since July 2018, Robert has been a private transportation consultant assisting numerous clients/project sponsors in successfully securing more than $300 million in U.S. DOT discretionary grant funding.

Robert has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University, and a Master of Arts in Transportation Policy, Operations and Logistics from the George Mason University School of Public Policy.

Mark is a distinguished health policy official who formerly served as a career executive in senior advisory roles to the CMS Administrator, Operation Warp Speed leadership, and at the CMS Innovation Center for Medicare Advantage and Part D. He joined the TCH Group as Senior Advisor for Healthcare Strategy in September 2022.

As a senior career official at CMS, he helped develop programs that lowered insulin costs and that improved supplemental benefits and access to palliative and hospice in Medicare Advantage. He also supported Operation Warp Speed’s leadership in ensuring COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody access and payor coverage.

Mark holds a PharmD from the University of Florida and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. As a pharmacist, he has stood up specialty and 340B pharmacies, managed PBM and provider pharmacy operations, and worked as a pediatric pharmacist. He also teaches a health policy immersion at the University of California-San Francisco (USCF) Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy.