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West Virginia Senate Race: Two Currently Serving House Members Amidst Evolving FieldDan Barrett March 20, 2013 With Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) not seeking a six term, the choices for West Virginian voters is currently wide open with at least 15 potential candidates either considering or outright running (depending on what source you are looking at). Two of the possibilities, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV), are serving at the federal level but what might West Virginians see from either of these Members if they were elected? While some will rely on rankings and what pledges might or might not be signed, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) offers a historical comparison of what each potential candidate has supported and might support in the future. That comparison comes in the form of the BillTally project, which is the only comprehensive research system to score EVERY introduced bill in Congress for new potential spending or savings to taxpayers. We score the measures (as introduced) and then link them to the sponsors and cosponsors because NTUF seeks to show the true fiscal intentions of federal legislators. You can search for your Member's or Senators' line-by-line BillTally report here. I compiled the proposed spending agendas of Representatives Capito and Rahall and found some legislative patterns. But, first off, I have the available BillTally data on both legislators averaged out* and their last three Congresses' totals.
Congressman Nick Rahall has been in Congress since 1977 and served as Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources from 2007 to 2011. In the 113th Congress, he is the Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He is the 9th most senior currently serving Representative. Delving into his ten Congresses worth of BillTally data, he has repeatedly supported a number of measures that would either increase federal spending or decrease the budget (by either increasing offsetting receipts, which the Congressional Budget Office counts as decreases in spending, or actual cuts in projected costs. Recurring Spending Proposals:
Some Spending Cut Proposals (no recurring measures):
Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito has served in the House since 2001 and serves on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. She also chairs the House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee. Similar to Congressman Rahall, Representative Capito's spending agenda is a mix of both spending increase and cut legislation but her overall number of pieces of supported legislation is lower than her potential counterpart. Recurring Spending Proposals:
Recurring Spending Cut Proposals:
However, both Representatives are not polar opposites on every issue. They have proposed similar measures including:
Both Capito and Rahall have also at one time during their legislative career supported the co-called Doc-Fix, which is a spending increase made each year for medical care compensation made to doctors providing care to Medicare patients. * BillTally was created in 1991 so Congressman Rahall's agendas are taken from the entirety of BillTally's existence. I did not assume or include any proposals or spending from before that time. Comment on this blogUser Comments
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