2006 Congressional Scorecard

2006-05-16

Executive Summary

The state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest advocacy organizations. U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for state PIRGs across the country. With a combination of professional expertise, citizen power, and dogged persistence, the state PIRGs and U.S. PIRG work to protect consumers and promote good government.

Now in its twelfth year, the annual Congressional Scorecard has been one of the many citizenship tools used by U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs to preserve the environment, advocate in the public interest, and revitalize participation in our democratic process. Going door-todoor in cities and towns across the country, U.S. PIRG and state PIRG staff are distributing this year’s Scorecard to more than one million households.

The 2006 Scorecard looks at the most important public interest votes taken between February 9, 2005 and February 1, 2006 in the U.S. Congress. These votes determined the direction of federal policy on critical issues ranging from environmental preservation to health care to consumer protections.