System to Measure Frugality in Congress : Capitol: Computerized program to rank legislators by their spending habits is unveiled by conservative group. Critics contend it will give distorted data.

A new computer-linked system that will show those in Congress who have been most inclined to vote for spending programs as well as those who have most often voted for budget cutting will be unveiled today by the conservative-oriented National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

The complex ratings system, known as Votetally, makes available for the first time a detailed breakdown of Senate and House voting records to computer users and could influence the perennial battles over deficit reduction.

Votetally is designed to track the cost of each bill approved by the House or Senate and rank members of Congress on the net amount of spending and budget-cutting for which they voted during the 103rd Congress. Its scoring, however, is sure to be controversial.

The amounts of most spending increases are based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office but in some cases the accounting is complicated. Supporters of the defense authorization bill, for instance, were cited for additional spending since the final version of that measure restored funds that had been reduced in an earlier stage of consideration.

While critics contended that the new score card will give a distorted view of congressional actions, its sponsors argued that it will provide the first fair evaluation of lawmakers’ decisions on spending or reductions in federal outlays.

“It will give hyper-accountability and drastically reduce the power of the (Democratic) leadership and of interest groups,” said Paul Hewitt, executive director of the foundation who devised the ratings system that will be available in a few weeks on CompuServe.

Rep. Jim Chapman (D-Tex.), often regarded as a moderate, was listed as the top spender in the House while Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) had the best record for economizing of the 432 members studied.

In the Senate, it was Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) who topped the spending list, while Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) came in last--or first in terms of frugality.

Chapman issued an instant rebuttal, declaring that the foundation based its ranking of him mainly on his vote against President Clinton’s budget reduction and tax increase bill along with his vote for the defense authorization bill.

“It is a pity that a group calling itself a taxpayers’ union salivates so strongly for tax increases and the complete crippling of national defense,” Chapman said. “I regret the National Taxpayers Union believes (that) we should tax more and cut national defense to virtually zero.”

Not surprisingly, the first report indicated that Congress was twice as likely to increase spending as to reduce it with a typical member voting for 81.7% of all increases in federal outlays but favoring only 48.7% of proposed reductions.

More surprisingly, however, the voting breakdown indicated that Southern Democrats and Republicans were more than twice as likely to be among the top 50 on the spending list than lawmakers from other parts of the nation.

In another unexpected twist, members of the Conservative Democratic Forum showed higher average spending levels than members of the Congressional Black Caucus, traditionally regarded as the most liberal group in the House.

Democratic congressional aides, who asked not to be identified, challenged the methodology of the Votetally rankings, contending that voting for funds to run the government was not wasteful as the ratings implied.

But the aides acknowledged that the specific placement of House and Senate members could be politically damaging, anyway, since it is likely to put lawmakers on the defensive.

“It’s a real easy hit for a regional reporter,” said one former press aide to a Democratic member of Congress. “It puts you in a box.”

Norman J. Ornstein, a specialist in congressional affairs for the American Enterprise Institute, said he was skeptical about ratings systems devised by advocacy groups.

The new system does not take into account votes for tax breaks, he said, although they represent a form of government spending because of a loss of revenue.

“If you can use this (system) to gauge the hypocrisy levels, that has more value to it,” Ornstein said. “Many members call themselves budget-cutters but don’t vote that way and the hypocrisy, I think, is more likely on the conservative side.”

Once the ratings are available to computer users, Hewitt suggested, many more citizens will be sending electronic mail to members of Congress that will slow the federal spending spiral.