“Fiscal Hawk” Earns Third-highest Score in Entire House

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jeb Hensarling (TX-05) today announced he has received the National Taxpayers Union “Taxpayers’ Friend Award” and an “A” rating from the nation’s oldest taxpayer watchdog group.  Hensarling’s 95% score is the third-highest pro-taxpayer score out of the 430 Members of the House who received a National Taxpayer Union rating.  This award marked Hensarling’s sixth consecutive “Taxpayers’ Friend” recognition.

Hensarling, who the Dallas Morning News recently said “has gained a reputation as one of Washington's most serious fiscal hawks,” is the second ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee and a member of the National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  He is the author of legislation dubbed the “gold standard” of budget reform and one of the co-authors of the Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution. 

Hensarling has earned one of the National Taxpayers’ Union’s (NTU) top five scores each year since 2005.  Upon learning of his latest NTU designation, Hensarling said “I am grateful to the National Taxpayers Union for the outstanding work they do analyzing legislation and rating the impact of bills on taxpayers and am honored to receive their A rating and the ‘Taxpayers’ Friend Award’ again this year.”

“When you review the NTU scorecard it becomes clear why America is accelerating down the road to national bankruptcy,” noted Hensarling.  “Only 55 Members of the House and Senate attained scores sufficient for an A rating, while 267 Senators and Representatives earned the dubious honor of being rated a ‘Big Spender,’ and that number is unchanged from 2008 despite two years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits.”

The 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen group founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom. This year’s House score for the 1st Session of the 111th Congress was calculated on 333 roll call votes in the House of Representatives.