Tiahrt, Moran both ramp up number of conservative bill sponsorships

“Why not look at bill sponsorship? …. I think an interesting story would be to look how Moran has moved to the right to appeal to the base for this primary.”

In response to the reader’s comment above and a slew of other comments on stories about the race to replace Sen. Sam Brownback, I have evaluated the bills introduced by both Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt over their past four Congressional terms. Keep in mind that bill sponsorship is not the same as voting record.

Since 2003, Moran and Tiahrt have introduced 61 and 60 bills, respectively, according to the non-government, non-partisan Web site www.govtrack.us. Of those, a total of four, two from each, have been enacted and signed by the President. Tiahrt’s enacted bills have both renamed a post office in Derby, Kan., and Wichita in honor of a local hero. One of Moran’s enacted bills called for compensation for select residents of Kansas and Nebraska farming communities while the other extended “the authority to grant waivers of the foreign country residence requirement with respect to certain international medical graduates.” Republicans had control of the House and Senate during two of these terms.

In general, the bills introduced by the two lawmakers differed greatly. While Moran focused mainly on improving rural health and farming regulation in his western Kansas district, Tiahrt focused on bills that would benefit the aviation industry – Wichita is a leader in the production of general and military aviation aircraft – and expand socially conservative principles. One of these bills, which called for “providing that the House of Representatives will focus on removing barriers to competitiveness of the United States economy,” fell just short of getting the two-thirds vote required to pass the House in July 2005. He has re-introduced the legislation this year.

Both candidates have ramped up their sponsorships and introductions of conservatively-leaning bills in the current term. Though Tiahrt has consistently introduced conservative legislation, this year he has introduced more bills promoting conservatism than in his previous three terms combined. Moran introduced few, if any, conservative-leaning bills before this year.

While both members of Congress have introduced bills that sharply criticize the current administration and support conservative ideals this year, they have also introduced fewer bills for their local industries. Moran has yet to introduce legislation to help out the local agriculture industry and Tiahrt has not introduced a bill for the local aviation industry.

Moran and Tiahrt have co-sponsored relatively similar bills this year, including a slew of pro-life and anti-gay marriage bills. Over the past several terms, Tiahrt clearly co-sponsored conservative amendments in the House more consistently than Moran. For example, Moran first co-sponsored the bill this year to make marriage constitutionally between a man and a woman. Tiahrt has co-sponsored the bill since 2003. While Moran also co-sponsored bills in defense of traditional marriages, pro-life principles, strict immigration policies and reestablishing the traditional family, Tiahrt co-sponsored more of these types of bills in every term preceding the current term. Conversely, the bills introduced and sponsored by Moran generally receive more sponsors, including several Democrats.