Walking the Walk of Fiscal Responsibility

Many Members of Congress are talking the talk of limited government and fiscal responsibility, but who is actually walking the walk? When it comes to making the hard decisions that will get the government off its spending binge and back on the path of fiscal sanity, what Congressmen are living up to the task?

Over the last few weeks, the United States House of Representatives has been voting on FY2012 Appropriations bills, which allow the government to spend money. During the process, several amendments were offered that contained substantial and necessary spending cuts.  Unfortunately, only 48 Members (out of 432) —all Republicans—voted for all of these measures.

The cut spending amendments are below:

  • Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN, 4th) offered H. Amdt.397 to H.R.2017, which would have reduced the Department of Homeland Security appropriations for FY2012 by 10%. The total savings would be $2.47 billion off the base bill and $3.54 billion from current spending levels. See our key vote letter here. Unfortunately, this amendment failed 110-312.
  • Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT, 3rd) offered H.Amdt.428 to H.R.2112, which would have reduced Agricultural appropriations for FY2012 by $1.8 billion (10.4%) and eliminated several wasteful programs. See our key vote letter here. This amendment failed 83-338.
  •  Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA, 4th) offered H.Amdt.596 to H.R.2354, which would have reduced Energy and Water Development appropriations for FY2012 by $3.25 billion (9.93%). See our key vote letter here. This amendment failed 96-313.
  •  Rep. Tim Hueslkamp (R-KS, 1st) offered H.AMDT.715 to H.R.2584, which would have reduced Interior and Environment appropriations for FY2012 by $3 billion. This amendment failed 126-284.

 

The 48 Representatives who voted for all of these cut spending measures are:

Amash, Justin A. (R-MI, 3rd)
Bishop, Rob (R-UT, 1st)
Brady, Kevin (R-TX, 8th)
Burgess, Michael C. (R-TX, 26th)
Burton, Dan (R-IN, 5th)
Broun, Paul (R-GA, 10th)
Campbell, John (R-CA, 48th)
Chabot, Steve (R-OH, 1st)
Chaffetz, Jason (R-UT, 3rd)*
Duncan, Jeff (R-SC, 3rd)
Flake, Jeff (R-AZ, 6th)
Foxx, Virginia (R-NC, 5th)
Garrett, Scott (R-NJ, 5th)
Gohmert, Louie (R-TX, 1st)
Gowdy, Trey (R-SC, 4th)
Graves, Tom (R-GA, 9th)
Hensarling, Jeb (R-TX, 5th)
Herger, Wally (R-CA, 2nd)
Huizenga, Bill (R-MI, 2nd)
Johnson, Sam (R-TX, 3rd)
Jordan, James D. (R-OH, 4th)
Labrador, Raúl (R-ID, 1st)
Lamborn, Doug (R-CO, 5th)*
Landry, Jeff (R-LA, 3rd)
Latta, Bob (R-OH, 5th)
Manzullo, Don (R-IL, 16th)*
McHenry, Patrick (R-NC, 10th)*
Miller, Gary G. (R-CA, 42nd)
Miller, Jeff (R-FL, 1st)
Mulvaney, Mick (R-SC, 5th)
Nunes, Devin (R-CA, 21st)
Paul, Ron (R-TX, 14th)
Pitts, Joe (R-PA, 16th)
Pompeo, Mike (R-KS, 4th)
Price, Tom (R-GA, 6th)
Rohrabacher, Dana (R-CA, 46th)
Rokita, Todd (R-IN, 4th)*
Royce, Ed (R-CA, 40th)
Ryan, Paul (R-WI, 1st)
Scalise, Steve (R-LA, 1st)
Scott, Tim (R-SC, 1st)
Sensenbrenner, Jim Jr. (R-WI, 5th)
Sessions, Pete (R-TX, 32nd)
Stearns, Cliff (R-FL, 6th)
Stutzman, Marlin (R-IN, 3rd)*
Walberg, Tim (R-MI, 7th)
Walsh, Joe (R-IL, 8th)
Wilson, Joe (R-SC, 2nd)

 

(*) denotes a Member who was not present for one of the votes, but voted for the other three cut spending amendments.

How did your Representative vote? See the full breakdown here.

Call your Member here to tell him or her what you think of his or her votes.