NARFE Releases 114th Congress Voting Scorecard

Alexandria, VA – The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) today released its voting scorecard for the 114th Congress.

Out of 1,183 House and 473 Senate roll-call votes cast between January 3, 2015, and July 14, 2016, NARFE identified 10 House and five Senate votes in which federal employee and retiree interests were most clearly at issue. (Since the scorecard was published, NARFE has not scored any additional votes.) House votes, the most ever selected, include those dealing with budget resolutions asking for hundreds of billions from the federal community in the name of deficit reduction, federal employee due process rights, and protecting Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants from receiving bad advice. Four of the five Senate votes were on House bills. Much like the 113th Congress, the NARFE scorecard found that, as with nearly all action and inaction on Capitol Hill, voting on these issues is more polarized than ever.

For the first time, NARFE also took a look back at the records of those running for higher office. Three of the four top candidates in the November elections have NARFE congressional voting records. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, has a 100 percent record in his four years in the Senate, and as a sitting senator, his record is featured in the scorecard. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who served in the Senate from 2001-2009, also has a 100 percent lifetime record (nine votes scored during that time). Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, who served in the House from 2001-2012, has a 0 percent NARFE lifetime voting record (28 scored votes).

This feature, which appears in the October issue of narfe magazine in even-numbered years, is the longest-running in the publication. The vote scoring serves many purposes, but endorsement is not among them. NARFE does not endorse candidates but rather seeks to empower federal employees and retirees to be informed voters and their own best advocates.

Please click here to see a short description of each vote and the full voting scorecard by state.

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The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), one of America’s oldest and largest associations, was founded in 1921 with the mission of protecting the earned rights and benefits of America’s active and retired federal workers. The largest federal employee/retiree organization, NARFE represents the retirement interests of nearly five million current and future federal annuitants, spouses and survivors.