The table below shows the latest BillTally findings on the Maryland delegation from National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s analysis of the 112th Congress. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the net cost of all of the spending and savings bills sponsored or cosponsored by each Member of Congress. We cross-index our database of cost estimates with each bill supported by each Member to calculate their net spending agenda (excluding overlapping/duplicate measures).
| Net Cost of Legislation Sponsored and Cosponsored by Maryland’s Congressional Delegation in the 112th Congress (Dollar Figures in Millions) | ||||||
| Name | Party | Increases | Decreases | Net Spending Agenda | # of Increases | # of Decreases |
| Cardin, Benjamin | D | $22,990 | ($108) | $22,882 | 73 | 6 |
| Mikulski, Barbara | D | $31,365 | ($8,722) | $22,643 | 64 | 3 |
| Bartlett, Roscoe | R | $8,497 | ($344,957) | ($336,460) | 40 | 17 |
| Cummings, Elijah | D | $1,355,598 | ($3,396) | $1,352,202 | 71 | 6 |
| Edwards, Donna | D | $1,333,566 | ($17,056) | $1,316,510 | 56 | 4 |
| Harris, Andy | R | $677 | ($494,291) | ($493,614) | 14 | 26 |
| Hoyer, Steny | D | $46,807 | ($3,343) | $43,464 | 15 | 2 |
| Ruppersberger, Dutch | D | $96,975 | ($3,446) | $93,529 | 39 | 6 |
| Sarbanes, John | D | $36,467 | ($3,392) | $33,075 | 46 | 3 |
| Van Hollen, Christopher | D | $99,469 | ($3,395) | $96,074 | 76 | 4 |
| Note: The links in the names will open a detailed report of that Member’s sponsored bills that had cost estimates. | ||||||
Among the states and territories, Maryland’s Republican House delegation would cut spending by an average of $415 billion. That was higher than any other Republican House delegation in the country. Representative Andy Harris had the 6th largest net savings agenda in the House, while Rep. Roscoe Bartlett had the 40th largest. All of Maryland’s House Democrats were “net spenders,” meaning that the legislation they sponsored would, on net, increase federal spending if passed. The net overall spending agenda of the entire House delegation, including both parties, was just over $263 billion, higher than all but 10 other state delegations.
Maryland’s Senate contingency introduced 69 bills that would increase federal spending and 5 that would reduce outlays. Their net average spending agenda of nearly $23 billion was larger than all but 11 other states’ Senate delegations.
The legislation sponsored by Reps. Donna Edwards and Elijah Cummings would increase outlays by over $1 trillion. Both sponsored legislation to enact a single-payer, universal health system exclusively administered by the federal government. Among all of the legislation introduced in the 112th Congress, this proposal had the largest price tag.
The full report contains lots of other data points, including the cost of all bills introduced in each Chamber and a look at fiscally-related member caucuses such as the Tea Party Caucus.
Links:
- Report: http://www.ntu.org/foundation/billtally-report-112-3.html (or pdf)
- Press Release: https://www.ntu.org/foundation/52813_112th-congress-billtally-spending-report.html
- Searchable Database of Members’ Legislation: https://www.ntu.org/on-capitol-hill/billtally/