(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today announced the release of its 2004 Congressional Ratings.  For the past 16 years, CCAGW has examined all roll-call votes to determine which members of Congress are interested in protecting tax dollars and which are likely to waste tax money by voting for legislation that creates new spending programs or contains pork-barrel projects.  There were two Taxpayer Super Heroes (a score of 100 percent) in the House.  They were Reps. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).  Only 59 House members were Taxpayer Heroes (a score of 80 percent or more), a 13 percent drop from 2003.  There were no senators with a score of 100 percent for the third year in a row.  In the Senate, the number of Taxpayer Heroes went from 11 in 2003 to 10 in 2004. 

“The 2004 Congressional Ratings show that many elected officials continue to demonstrate little regard for the harmful effect a large and cumbersome federal government has on taxpayers’ wallets,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Out of control spending reigned over Capitol Hill last year.”

For the second session of the 108^th Congress, CCAGW rated 40 key votes in the House and 16 key votes in the Senate.  The votes range from reducing spending in the highway reauthorization bill to the president’s request of $256 billion in the Senate to a 1 percent across-the-board reduction on several appropriations bills in the House.

The entire House had an average of 39 percent.  The average score for Republicans in the House was 63 percent.  For House Democrats, the average was 11 percent.  Just a year before, Republicans had an average of 72 percent, Democrats had an average of 17 percent, and the entire House rated 46 percent.

The entire Senate had an average of 40 percent.  In the Senate, the average for Republicans was 63 percent.  For Senate Democrats, the average was 16 percent.  In CCAGW’s 2003 Ratings, Republicans had a rating of 70 percent, Democrats had an average of 19 percent, and the entire Senate rated 45 percent.

There were 24 members of the House with a score of zero.  They were: Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Robert Brady (D-Pa.), G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Julia Carson (D-Ind.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Jesse Jackson (D-Ill.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Karen McCarthy (D-Mo.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), José Serrano (D-N.Y.), Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Diane Watson (D-Calif.) and Melvin Watt (D-N.C.).

In the Senate, the highest score went to Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) with 94 percent, with Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) close behind at 93 percent.  There were four senators with the lowest score of zero: John Breaux (D-La.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

“With a 31 percent increase in pork projects costing taxpayers $27.3 billion, for example, it is no wonder that Congress’ score continues to decline,” Schatz said.  “Congress must control its insatiable appetite for our tax dollars.”

CCAGW’s website features the complete 2004 Congressional Ratings, including vote descriptions, scorecards for the House and Senate, personalized scorecards for each member of Congress, historical comparisions, and averages by chamber, party, and state delegation.  Visit www.cagw.org for further information.

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.