Congressional Report Card
Who in Congress is a True International Leader?

Want to know which Senators supported efforts to stop genocide in Darfur, or which Representatives failed to oppose new bunker-buster bomb spending? You can find the answers in the Citizens for Global Solutions’ 2006 Congressional Report Card, the most comprehensive tool for evaluating which legislators are true advocates of cooperative solutions to global problems. Our Report Card ranked Members of Congress on their positions on such issues as:

• Genocide in Darfur
• U.N. Democracy Caucus
• International Criminal Court
• Funding for U.N. Operations
• Torture
• Nuclear Proliferation
• International AIDS and Development
• Funding
• Climate Change

Not only has Citizens for Global Solutions analyzed legislators’ voting records on global issues, it has awarded extra credit for sponsored legislation, floor speeches, public statements, articles and op-eds written or made by Members of Congress in support of cooperative global solutions.

As Don Kraus, Executive Vice President of the organization, noted, “Citizens for Global Solutions wanted to recognize that legislators make essential contributions to global issues that are often not reflected in roll call votes. Our final grades award extra credit to those legislators who took such actions. Our Report Card can help Americans determine whether their Members of Congress promoted effective global solutions or fought against constructive U.S. global engagement.”

A total of 37 Members of Congress were recognized by Citizens for Global Solutions for outstanding work on behalf of global issues. Among those receiving extra credit were:

• Senator John McCain, (R-AZ), was honored for sponsoring the Climate Stewardship Act and for addressing allegations of torture and abuse. He also wrote a joint op-ed in the Washington Post calling for U.S.-U.N. intervention to end the genocide in Darfur.

• Senator Russ Feingold, (D-WI), introduced S. Res. 104, the People-to-People Engagement in World Affairs Resolution, which encourages Members of Congress to raise the importance of international engagement with their constituents. He also passed an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that provided $4 million for democracy and governance activities in Zimbabwe.

• Representative Chris Shays, (R-CT), consistently supported sound foreign policy instead of the partyline position. He provided valuable leadership on the House Bipartisan Task Force on Non-Proliferation. He also chaired hearings on a range of issues from nuclear site security to fostering democracy in the Middle East. Representative Shays joined his democratic colleague, Tom Lantos, (D-CA), in providing an alternative to the punitive Henry J. Hyde U.N. Reform Act.

• Representative Betty McCollum, (D-MN), introduced a bill that doubled U.S. assistance to international family planning with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS education. She also sponsored H. Con. Res. 172, legislation urging U.S. adherence to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals. She was also the only Member of Congress to participate in the G8 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on Development in Africa this past June.

Citizens for Global Solutions’ members across the country use the Report Card to measure how their Members of Congress stand on important global issues. In addition, Citizens for Global Solutions and its political action committee, Global Solutions PAC, will use it to help determine which candidates to endorse and fund in the next election cycle.

Further information on the Citizens for Global Solutions Report Card, including a downloadable version, detailed vote descriptions, roll call breakdowns, method of calculation, domestic and international significance, as well as who received extra credit and why, is available at: reportcard"> www.globalsolutions.org/reportcard.

Contributing Writer: Don Kraus


Updated April 10, 2006