WASHINGTON – A government relations information management group recently ranked all the members of Congress according to power, and credit unions count members among their allies throughout the ranks.
It was no surprise that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) ranked first in power among members of the Senate and House, respectively, for 2005. Knowlegis, an information management company providing services and software for government relations professionals, performed the ranking.
Knowlegis CEO Brad Fitch said his organization's motivation was to "provide the public with additional assessment tools and.get people involved in government and politics." A full list of rankings is available at www.congress.org.
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NAFCU Director of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler said that credit unions do not target lawmakers based on lists like this. They go for legislators who are supportive of credit union issues no matter how they rank because even the lesser power player could one day be in an influential position and it is best to get in early. Rankings lists like this one, he said, "can make for interesting debate and conversation, but I'm not sure they mean anything up front."
NCUA Director of Public and Congressional Affairs John McKechnie, CUNA's former top lobbyist, agreed that these lists are "interesting conversation starters" and they "may have some relevance." However, he added, "Things on Capitol Hill are so fluid that it really has more to do with issues as to who is most effective."
Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who has come under fire by credit unions for his proposed legislation on credit union conversions, ranked 154 on the list, respectable given his freshman status. Ranking the Members
A total of 289 different criteria were studied in making the ranking determinations, Fitch explained, which basically broke down into the three categories of position and tenure; influence, including indirect through media or contributions to others' campaigns; and legislation. Additionally, the researchers also could not ignore the less tangible "fizzle or sizzle" category, which boosted Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) ranking to 41 for the freshman senator and pulled former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's (R-Texas) score down, but kept him in second place among House members.
Fitch admitted that there are some limitations to the scoring system because it does not take into account the behind-the-scenes work that members of Congress do, such as earmarks for pet projects, individual casework for constituents, or serving as a liaison between the state and federal governments. He also hopes to add the categories of "quiet but effective" legislators and "moderates" in the future.
"We integrated every available piece of publicly available data to create an assessment of each Member of Congress," Fitch said. "We developed criteria and a weighting formula that reflected how members exercise power. This may not be the totality of a member's contribution to his or her constituents, but it can serve as a valuable tool for citizens when they are judging their elected officials." [email protected]
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