Congress Gets a Failing Grade for Protecting Tax Dollars

(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today announced the release of its 2003 Congressional Ratings.  Since 1989, CCAGW has examined congressional votes to determine which members protect tax dollars and which spend wastefully by voting for legislation that grows government and has long-lasting negative repercussions on taxpayers’ wallets.  For the first time since 1994, there were no Taxpayer Superheroes (with scores of 100 percent) in the entire Congress.  The House had only 68 Taxpayer Heroes with scores of 80 percent or above and the Senate had only 11, compared to 80 and 24 from last year.

“Our 2003 Congressional Ratings are proof that Congress was on a massive spending spree last year,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Vote tallies show that Congress was more interested in spending money than in fiscal sanity.”

For the first session of the 108th Congress, CCAGW rated 38 key votes in the House and 25 key votes in the Senate.  The votes range from preventing pork-barrel projects, to reducing discretionary spending by a mere 1 percent, to the massive $534 billion 10-year Medicare drug plan. 

The highest score in the House was 95 percent, shared by nine members:  Todd Akin (R-Mo.), Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.), Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mark Green (R-Wisc.), Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)  On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest score was 5 percent, a dubious distinction going to Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.)

In the Senate, the highest score was 88 percent, shared by five senators.  They were:  John Ensign (R-Nev.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Don Nickles (R-Okla.), and John Sununu (R-N.H.).  The lowest score was 4 percent, shared by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).

Comparing the 2003 results to 2002, the 2002 House Congressional Ratings had eight members who scored 100 percent and three who scored zero percent.  In the 2002 Senate Congressional Ratings, five Senators had 94 percent and 13 Senators scored zero percent.  The shift in voting patterns could be attributed to the large spending measures that were passed or considered by both houses of Congress and opposed by CCAGW.  Legislation such as the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit and the Energy Policy Act represented costly undertakings that normally would have been opposed by members who practice fiscal discipline and believe in less government.

“The intense pressure to ‘get something done’ in an election year proved to be a stampeding force that lowered ratings across the board,” Schatz concluded.  “Only a few stalwarts were able to resist the resulting onslaught on taxpayers.”

CCAGW’s web site features the complete 2003 Congressional Ratings:  Vote descriptions, vote tallies, highest and lowest rated, historical comparisons, and averages by chamber, party, and state delegation.  Visit www.ccagw.org.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.