The table below shows the latest BillTally findings on the Virginia 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 Virginia’s Congressional Delegation in the 112th Congress (Dollar Figures in Millions) | ||||||
| Name | Party | Increases | Decreases | Net Spending Agenda | # of Increases | # of Decreases |
| Warner, Mark | D | $2,317 | ($13,845) | ($11,528) | 33 | 6 |
| Webb, Jim | D | $4,405 | ($3,404) | $1,001 | 27 | 5 |
| Cantor, Eric | R | $19,779 | ($84,558) | ($64,779) | 2 | 11 |
| Connolly, Gerald | D | $54,010 | ($3,377) | $50,633 | 110 | 4 |
| Forbes, Randy | R | $6,371 | ($156,469) | ($150,098) | 30 | 18 |
| Goodlatte, Robert | R | $12,831 | ($176,078) | ($163,247) | 17 | 19 |
| Griffith, Morgan | R | $1,074 | ($74,063) | ($72,989) | 9 | 9 |
| Hurt, Robert | R | $921 | ($64,017) | ($63,096) | 13 | 7 |
| Moran, James | D | $160,299 | ($6,239) | $154,060 | 103 | 9 |
| Rigell, Scott | R | $9,679 | ($237,629) | ($227,950) | 22 | 25 |
| Scott, Robert | D | $1,233,937 | ($3,376) | $1,230,561 | 81 | 4 |
| Wittman, Rob | R | $16,837 | ($85,298) | ($68,461) | 39 | 19 |
| Wolf, Frank | R | $17,193 | ($15,845) | $1,348 | 34 | 6 |
| 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, Virginia’s House delegation had the 29th largest average spending agenda: a budget increase of $57 billion. The three Democrats in the House caucus sponsored an agenda ranging in cost from $51 billion up to $1.2 trillion (Representative Scott is a sponsor of a bill to enact a single-payer, universal health care system).
With the exception of Representative Wolf, the Republicans were “net cutters”: if the legislation they sponsored or cosponsored were enacted into law, spending would be cut. Rep. Rigell had the largest net cutting agenda in the delegation ($227 billion).
The two Senators’ respective spending agendas were each less than the average Democratic Senator (which was $39 billion) and Senator Warner was one of the six Democrats with net cutting agendas. The average Republican Senator sponsored budgetary cuts of over $270 billion.
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/