The table below shows the latest BillTally findings on the North Carolina 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 North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation in the 112th Congress (Dollar Figures in Millions) | ||||||
| Name | Party | Increases | Decreases | Net Spending Agenda | # of Increases | # of Decreases |
| Burr, Richard | R | $3,491 | ($277,857) | ($274,366) | 29 | 32 |
| Hagan, Kay | D | $6,930 | ($6,135) | $795 | 51 | 4 |
| Butterfield, George | D | $1,214,847 | ($3,362) | $1,211,485 | 55 | 2 |
| Coble, Howard | R | $5,918 | ($239,755) | ($233,837) | 36 | 18 |
| Ellmers, Renee | R | $905 | ($200,606) | ($199,701) | 20 | 24 |
| Foxx, Virginia | R | $12,176 | ($175,577) | ($163,401) | 11 | 28 |
| Jones, Walter | R | $23,572 | ($90,255) | ($66,683) | 59 | 28 |
| Kissell, Larry | D | $37,081 | ($3,533) | $33,548 | 67 | 10 |
| McHenry, Patrick | R | $2,556 | ($405,817) | ($403,261) | 20 | 12 |
| McIntyre, Mike | D | $44,859 | ($4,656) | $40,203 | 50 | 5 |
| Miller, Brad | D | $66,660 | ($3,344) | $63,316 | 43 | 2 |
| Myrick, Sue | R | $17,957 | ($277,737) | ($259,780) | 30 | 34 |
| Price, David | D | $92,310 | ($13,340) | $78,970 | 84 | 2 |
| Shuler, Heath | D | $32,293 | ($3,385) | $28,908 | 27 | 4 |
| Watt, Melvin | D | $46,079 | ($3,340) | $42,739 | 30 | 1 |
| 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, North Carolina’s House delegation had the 32nd largest average net spending agenda: $13.3 billion. One member (Rep. George Butterfield) was a sponsor of legislation to enact a single-payer, universal health system exclusively administered by the federal government.
Each House Democratic Representative from North Carolina backed legislation that, overall, would lead to net spending increases.
If all of the legislation that Representative Butterfield either sponsored or cosponsored during the 112th Congress were passed into law, spending would increase by more than $1.2 trillion – the most new spending supported by any Member from North Carolina and the 75th overall.
All of the Republicans from North Carolina were “net cutters”: if the legislation they each had sponsored were enacted into law, spending would decrease. Their net budget cutting agendas ranged from $67 billion to over $403 billion (Rep. Patrick McHenry).
Among all House Members, Representative Ellmers’ agenda included the fewest amount of spending increases ($905 million), more than offset by nearly $201 billion in cuts.
In the Upper Chamber, Senator Burr was a net cutter: the bills he backed would, on net, cut spending by nearly $275 billion. Senator Hagan supported 51 increase proposals and 4 proposals to cut spending, for a net agenda of $795 million. The average Democratic Senator supported $39 billion in net increases.
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: https://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/