MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Hold members of Congress accountable
How well do your members of Congress
protect children? Once again, that’s the question answered by the
Children’s Defense Fund Action Council’s annual nonpartisan
Congressional Scorecard. In this newly-released report, individual
Senators and Representatives and state delegations were given
nonpartisan rankings based on their votes in Congress during 2004 on
legislation affecting children’s lives. Some Members of Congress
received strong marks for standing for children—and some are failing
miserably. This year, it is more important than ever that our members
of Congress are held accountable for their actions. In the next weeks
or months U.S. Senators and Representatives will be casting critical
votes on a national budget that threatens to make permanent tax cuts
that lavish massive tax breaks on the rich while imposing budget caps,
cuts, freezes, and block grants on programs for poor children and
families including Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP), and Head Start. America’s children and families did
not create the deficit and should not have to pay for it with their
very lives, health care, education, nutrition, and safety. [more]
More than 9 million children under age
19 in the United States have no health insurance, and nearly 90
percent of them are in working families.
- 9.3 million children were uninsured for all of 2002―one in eight children in the United States.
- Children's Health Insurance
Program (CHIP) enrollment has steadily risen from 3.3 million in 2000
to 4.6 million in 2001, 5.3 million in 2002 and 5.8 million in 2003.
About 6 million of the 9.3 million uninsured children are, however,
eligible for Medicaid or CHIP under current law.
- In
2001, infants born to Black mothers were more than twice as likely as
infants born to White mothers to die before their first birthday.
Non-Latino Black and Latino women were almost three times as likely as
non-Latino White women to have late or no prenatal care. [more]
The Worst Senators for Children, Scored Below 10%
Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) 8%
Sen. George Allen (R-VA) 8%
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) 8%
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) 8%
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) 8%
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) 8%
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) 8%
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) 8%
Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) 8%
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) 8%
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) 8%
Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) 8%
Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) 8%
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 8%
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) 8%
Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY) 8%
The Worst Representatives for Children, Scored Below 10%
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE) 9%
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) 8%
Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) 8%
Rep. John A. Boehner (R-OH) 8%
Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr. (R-SC) 8%
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) 8%
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) 8%
Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) 8%
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) 8%
Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-MI) 8%
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) 8%
Rep. Paul E. Gillmor (R-OH) 8%
Rep. Mark Green (R-WI) 8%
Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) 8%
Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-IN) 8%
Rep. Kenny C. Hulshof (R-MO) 8%
Rep. William L. Jenkins (R-TN) 8%
Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL) 8%
Rep. John Linder (R-GA) 8%
Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA) 8%
Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO) 8%
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) 8%
Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA) 8%
Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS) 8%
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) 8%
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) 8%
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) 8%
Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) 8%
Rep. Rob Portman (R-OH) 8%
Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) 8%
Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) 8%
Rep. Dennis R. Rehberg (R-MT) 8%
Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-NY) 8%
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) 8%
The Best Senators for Children, Scored 100%
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 100% Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) 100% Sen.
Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 100% Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) 100% Sen.
Edward Kennedy (D-MA) 100% Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) 100% Sen. Jack Reed
(D-RI) 100% Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) 100%
The Best Representatives for Children, Scored 100%
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) 100% Rep. Thomas H. Allen (D-ME) 100% Rep.
Robert E. Andrews (D-NJ) 100% Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) 100% Rep.
Xavier Becerra (D-CA) 100% Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) 100% Rep. Elijah E.
Cummings (D-MD) 100% Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) 100% Rep. Lloyd
Doggett (D-TX) 100% Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) 100% Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA)
100% Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) 100% Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) 100%
Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY) 100% Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-NJ) 100% Rep.
Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-IL) 100% Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) 100%
Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) 100% Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-MI) 100%
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) 100% Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) 100% Rep. James P.
McGovern (D-MA) 100% Rep. George Miller (D-CA) 100% Rep. Jerrold Nadler
(D-NY) 100% Rep. John W. Olver (D-MA) 100% Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.
(D-NJ) 100% Rep. Ed Pastor (D-AZ) 100% Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ) 100%
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 100% Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) 100% Rep.
Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA) 100% Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL) 100%
Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY) 100% Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-CA) 100% Rep.
Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-CA) 100% Rep. John F. Tierney (D-MA) 100% Rep.
Tom Udall (D-NM) 100% Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) 100% Rep. Maxine
Waters (D-CA) 100% Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) 100% Rep. Robert Wexler
(D-FL) 100% Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA) 100%
- To see the complete CDF Action Council Congressional Scorecard online, visit [here]