According to the conservative Center for Security Policy, House Intelligence and Armed Services Committee Chairmen Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) were among those with the strongest voting records on national security this year, while Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) were among the worst.
The center rated all 535 members of the Congress on eight issue votes taken in the Senate and 22 in the House this year, including a measure to defund the U.S. wars on terrorists (a ???nay??? vote was promoted by the organization) to a bill that would define terrorists as enemy combatants and try them by military tribunal (the center recommended a ???yea??? vote).
The center gave 195 members of Congress 100 percent ???champion??? ratings on the issues, including one Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.) and one Independent, Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) The 74 members receiving a 0% rating were all Democrats.
This is the tenth year that the Center for Security Policy has released its scorecard.
At a time when threats to the United States are multiplying by the day, this election is enormously consequential for our national security,??? Gaffney said in a statement. ??? It is imperative that the American public be able to assess how our legislators have voted on a range of defense, foreign policy and homeland security matters.???
Gaffney said the scorecard provided a ???valuable starting point??? for voters to understand and evaluate the positions they hold.
The full scorecard rankings for all officials are available here.
