(Washington, DC) – At a Capitol Hill news conference, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), America’s largest taxpayer watchdog group, identified Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) as the least taxpayer-friendly member of the U.S. Senate.  The group, which released its 1998 Congressional Ratings on Thursday, gave Sen. Sarbanes a score of zero out of twenty possible votes that would have cut government waste and decreased federal spending.

“Sen. Sarbanes’s performance has been abysmal,” remarked CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “You would think that the senator from Maryland could have voted in favor of the taxpayer at least once.  Instead, he arbitrarily and capriciously voted to misuse the money of hardworking Americans.”

In its ratings, CCAGW rated 28 House and 20 Senate votes that would have significantly reduced government waste and decreased the burden on taxpayers.  The ratings followed a simple rule:  the higher the rating, the better the lawmaker did at fighting waste and curbing runaway government spending.  Members of Congress who achieved a rating of 80 percent or better were presented with CCAGW’s annual Taxpayer Hero Award.  Legislators like Sen. Sarbanes who received a rating of 20 percent or less were dubbed as being “hostile” to the interests of taxpayers.

CCAGW’s Congressional Ratings highlight some dramatic trends in Congress.  In general, Republican members of the 105^th Congress did well, achieving an average of 75 percent in the House and 74 percent in the Senate.  Conversely, their Democrat colleagues turned in a lackluster performance, attaining an average of just 18 percent in both chambers of Congress.

Overall, 77 members of the House and 15 members of the Senate wound up rating above the 80 percent, including five standouts who received a perfect score of 100 percent.  In contrast, Sen. Sarbanes was the only member of the Senate to rate an absolute zero.  Concluded Schatz, “It is truly a sad day in Washington when an elected official fails to vote even once in defense of overburdened taxpayers.”

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.