It probably surprises no one that Members of Congress are collectively more likely to draft legislation that calls for spending increases rather than cuts. NTU Foundation’s newest BillTally report shows that this trend continues in the 111th Congress, but for the first time in several years, the ratio of increases to cuts saw a relatively large simultaneous drop in both Chambers as Members drafted more savings bills and fewer spending bills.
Since 1991, NTUF’s BillTally cost accounting system has computed a “net annual agenda” based on each Senator's or Representative’s individual sponsorship or cosponsorship of legislation. This unique approach provides an in-depth look at the fiscal behavior of lawmakers, free from the influence of committees, party leaders, and rules surrounding floor votes. All cost estimates for bills are obtained from third-party sources, Congress Members’ offices, or are calculated from neutral data.
Some highlights from the report:
- In the First Session of the 111th Congress (all of 2009), Representatives authored 981 bills to raise federal spending and 63 bills to reduce spending – a ratio of nearly16 increases for every cut. This gap is narrower than the 22 to 1 ratio for the same period in the 110th Congress.
- Senators drafted 620 increase bills and 34 savings bills, for an 18 to 1 increase-to-cut ratio. This comprised a significant change from the 30 to 1 ratio in the last Congress.
- The number of Members whose “net agenda” (all bills they supported taken together) would reduce spending stood at 119 in the House and 24 in the Senate – more than twice as many as in the last Congress. This is the highest number of “net cutters” since the 104th Congress some 15 years ago.
- However, the ranks of Members with agendas greater than $100 billion grew from 107 to 128 in the House, and tripled to 24 in the Senate.
- The typical House Democrat in the 111th Congress proposed a net spending agenda of $500.2 billion – less than the $547 billion he or she backed in the 110th Congress. The typical House Republican had an agenda that would cut spending by $45.3 billion – the first "net-cutting" average for the House GOP in over a decade.
- In the Senate, the average Democrat backed legislation that would, on net, increase outlays by $133.7 billion – a sharp rise from the same period in the previous Congress ($59.2 billion). Republicans, on average, posted an agenda to boost spending by $50.9 billion – the highest amount recorded since the BillTally project began in 1991.
- Members of the Republican Study Committee and the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, two of the self-identified "fiscally conservative" caucuses in the House, compiled lower net spending agendas than other Members of Congress in their respective parties.
- Although the average House Republican was a net cutter, the typical member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which claims to be composed of "fiscally conservative deficit hawks," compiled an average net agenda to increase spending by $40.6 billion.
A list of spending bills sponsored by each Member of Congress is available here.
More information on the report is available on the Foundation’s new web page: https://www.ntu.org/foundation/.