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August 22, 2010

State’s Congressional delegation offers a little bit of a lot things

By Bob Keefe Atlanta Journal-Constitution Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — WASHINGTON — Georgia’s congressmen are back in the state until early September, soliciting votes and campaign contributions and explaining to taxpayers how they earned their pay in Washington.

But did they?

It all depends on what you think is important — ideologically and fiscally — and how you measure accomplishments.

To try to provide some answers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed a wide range of data on all of Georgia’s members of Congress, including voting and legislative records, pork-barrel state projects they got funded, office and staff expenses and ratings by outside organizations.

Think a lawmaker is most effective by bringing home federal dollars for state projects? Then Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is your man, bringing home nearly $91 million so far during the current Congress for “earmark” projects ranging from road and sewer improvements to research grants for schools and private companies. In the House, Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop of Albany and Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah lead the pack among Georgians, according to data from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Kingston brought home nearly $67 million in pork-barrel earmark funding — more than all but 26 of 435 members of Congress, while Bishop brought home $57 million in pork — more than all but 32 of the 435 members of the House.

Value a lawmaker for their conservative or liberal stance? Republican Reps. Tom Price of Roswell,  John Linder of Lawrenceville, Paul Broun of Athens, Lynn Westmoreland of Coweta County and former Rep. Nathan Deal of Gainesville (who resigned to run for governor) all got perfect 100 ratings from the American Conservative Union. On the other end of the spectrum, Democratic Reps. John Lewis of Atlanta and Hank Johnson of Lithonia got 90-plus ratings from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Maybe a lawmaker should be measured by how many laws they propose and get passed. There, Westmoreland does the least — he hasn’t introduced a single piece of legislation this Congress — while Johnson has gotten three bills passed into law, more than any other Georgian. Lewis sponsored the most bills, 49 — but only one became law, just last week.

If there were an attendance award, Democratic Rep. David Scott of Atlanta would be the winner, missing just a little over 1 percent of all votes this session, while Deal — even before he resigned in March — had one of the worst voting records, missing 25 percent of all votes, according to congressional records. Lewis, who was out temporarily for neck surgery and other health reasons, missed 15 percent of all House votes.

Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon is apparently the most cost-effective congressman from Georgia. He had the lowest staff and office expenses of the delegation last year, congressional accounting records show.

There are a few surprises in the data, too:

• Broun, often considered among the most conservative of Georgia’s Republicans, voted with other Republicans 87 percent of the time — less frequently than any other GOP Georgian.

• Lewis, a liberal Democrat, gets higher marks from the National Federation of Independent Business, a nonpartisan business group, than Westmoreland, a conservative pro-business Republican counterpart from Georgia. Similarly, Democrat Marshall gets higher marks from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce than some Republicans.

• Bishop may bring plenty of earmark money home to Georgia, but in Washington, he’s among Georgia’s quietest members.  He introduced only two bills this session and appeared on the House floor only four times, less than any other Georgian, congressional records show. He also had the highest number of reported tardy days — 20, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. By comparison, Broun sponsored 28 bills, had no reported tardy days and appeared on the House floor 93 times, where he made 737 speeches — more speeches by far than any other Georgian.

Together, Georgia’s congressional delegation sponsored nearly 250 bills — yet only five of them became law. None were exactly world-changing. Three (by Johnson) deal with arcane legalities in court proceedings; one (by Kingston) directed the U.S. Mint to make a commemorative Girl Scout coin; and one (by Democratic Rep. John Barrow of Savannah) officially changed the name of a post office in Sparta.

Of course, statistics tell only part of the story of what Georgia’s lawmakers have — and haven’t — done to earn their keep in Congress, where they each get an annual salary of $174,000 plus benefits and millions more from taxpayers each year to run their offices.

Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, for instance, sponsored 27 bills, none of which became law. Yet through amendments and other congressional actions, he got several major pieces of legislation passed, including an extension and expansion of homebuyer tax credits and the creation of a financial oversight committee looking into the causes of the collapse of Wall Street and the nation’s housing markets.

And just because a lawmaker doesn’t sponsor a lot of legislation doesn’t mean he or she isn’t doing their job, they say.

Westmoreland said even if he did sponsor more bills, it wouldn’t matter because Republicans like him are in the minority.

“I could introduce a bill that’s the greatest idea in the world, but it’s not even going to come to the floor — not this year,” he said.

Linder said that some of the most effective lawmakers get more done in other ways.

“I don’t think [former House Speaker Newt] Gingrich ever introduced an important bill, and I can’t name a bill associated with Trent Lott or Zell [Miller],” Linder said. “But a lot of these guys did a lot of good stuff behind the scenes.”

Like taxpayers, members of Congress value their accomplishments differently when asked to rate themselves.

Lewis said he would give himself a B-plus. “Not for the legislation I’ve introduced, but for the positions I’ve taken on health care, job creation, Social Security,” he said.

Similarly, Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta said he would give himself “a good solid B.”

“I really want to do a good job at home, and I want to be well-respected [in Washington],” he said. “That’s sort of my goal.”

Others refuse to rate themselves, leaving others to decide that, based on their records and their statistics in Congress.

“Having a politician measure their own success is one of the most self-serving things you can do,” Isakson said.

“I’ll leave that up to the voters.”

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