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Freedom Index

A Congressional Scorecard Based on the U.S. Constitution

 
Garret Graves

Garret Graves

Representative

LouisianaDistrict 6th

Republican

Contact:

Phone: (202) 225-3901

Constitutional Votes

Score Congress
64% Lifetime
47% 118th (2023-2024) 118th (2023-2024)
77% 117th (2021-2022) 117th (2021-2022)
63% 116th (2019-2020) 116th (2019-2020)
65% 115th (2017-2018) 115th (2017-2018)
65% 114th (2015-2016) 114th (2015-2016)
Garret Graves

Garret Graves

Representative

LouisianaDistrict 6th

Republican

Status: Active Legislator

Contact:

Phone: (202) 225-3901
Home Town: Baton Rouge

 

Constitutional Votes

Score Congress
64% Lifetime
47% 118th (2023-2024) 118th (2023-2024)
77% 117th (2021-2022) 117th (2021-2022)
63% 116th (2019-2020) 116th (2019-2020)
65% 115th (2017-2018) 115th (2017-2018)
65% 114th (2015-2016) 114th (2015-2016)

Voting History

Freedom Index 118-1

The Freedom Index rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.

The scores are derived by dividing a congressman's constitutional votes (pluses) by the total number he cast (pluses and minuses) and multiplying by 100. The average House score for this index is 32 percent, and the average Senate score is 30 percent. Twenty-five representatives and two senators earned 100 percent. We encourage readers to examine how their own congressmen voted on each of the 10 key measures. We also encourage readers to commend legislators for their constitutional votes, and to urge improvement where needed.

Freedom Index 118-1

The Freedom Index rates congressmen based on their adherence to constitutional principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, national sovereignty, and a traditional foreign policy of avoiding foreign entanglements.

The scores are derived by dividing a congressman's constitutional votes (pluses) by the total number he cast (pluses and minuses) and multiplying by 100. We encourage readers to examine how their own congressmen voted on each of the 10 key measures. We also encourage readers to commend legislators for their constitutional votes, and to urge improvement where needed.

Our first look at the 118th Congress shows how every member of the House and Senate voted on key issues such as the bipartisan debt-limit deal, ending the Covid national emergency, and ESG.

Our first look at the 118th Congress shows how every member of the House and Senate voted on key issues such as the bipartisan debt-limit deal, ending the Covid national emergency, and ESG.

Forced Vaccinations

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

H.R. 497, the “Freedom for Health Care Workers Act,” would eliminate the Health and Human Services (HHS) Covid-19 vaccine mandate on healthcare providers furnishing items and services in Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities. It would also prohibit HHS from publishing any substantially similar rule.

The House passed H.R. 497 on January 31, 2023 by a vote of 227 to 203 (Roll Call 98). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because an executive branch agency, such as HHS, has no lawmaking power according to Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution, and therefore cannot impose vaccine mandates via executive decree. Even with an act of Congress, Covid-19 vaccine mandates would still be unconstitutional due to the lack of constitutional authority for Congress to pass a law mandating what you must put into your body.

Terminate Covid-19 National Emergency

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

According to H. J. Res. 7, “the national [Covid-19] emergency declared by the finding of the President on March 13, 2020, in Proclamation 9994 … is hereby terminated.”

The House passed H. J. Res. 7 on February 1, 2023 by a vote of 229 to 197 (Roll Call 104). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because it is unconstitutional to suspend the Constitution by declaring national public-health emergencies.

Noncitizen Voting in Washington, D.C.

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

H. J. Res. 24 would nullify the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022, enacted by the Council of the District of Columbia, which allows noncitizens — including illegal aliens — to vote in local elections beginning in 2024.

The House passed H. J. Res. 24 on February 9, 2023 by a vote of 260 to 162 (Roll Call 118). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the right to vote and choose representatives in America is retained solely by citizens of the United States, who, owing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, are not subject to any foreign power. According to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution, Congress is granted the authority to “exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” involving Washington, D.C.

ESG Fiduciary Rule

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

H. J. Res. 30 would reverse the December 2022 Labor Department rule modifying standards under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to allow retirement-plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in making investment decisions and exercising shareholder rights, including when voting on shareholder resolutions and board nominations.

The House passed H. J. Res. 30 on February 28, 2023 by a vote of 216 to 204 (Roll Call 124). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because “woke” ESG policies, which corporations and governments are increasingly embracing, are aligned with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. The UN’s Agenda 2030 is inherently contrary to the Constitution, and ESG promotes leftist policies including radical environmentalism, gun control, and the LGBT agenda. Plus, the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to regulate retirement plans.

U.S. Military in Syria

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: No

H. Con. Res. 21 would direct the president to remove U.S. armed forces from Syria within 180 days of the adoption of the resolution.

The House rejected the resolution on March 8, 2023 by a vote of 103 to 321 (Roll Call 136). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the military intervention in Syria was initiated by the president without congressional approval, despite the fact that the power to declare war belongs to Congress.

Federal Water Rule

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

H. J. Res. 27 would disapprove of a rule submitted by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense, and Environmental Protection Agency on January 18, 2023 that again revises the definition of the “Waters of the United States.” During House debate on the bill, Representative Tracey Mann (R-Kan.) declared, “Agricultural producers have been forced to operate their businesses under three different definitions of water in the last 10 years, and this most recent rule removes long-standing bipartisan exemptions for common water features like ponds and streams found on family farms and other private property. With this vote, Congress has a golden opportunity to stand up not only for people who feed, fuel, and clothe us all, but also for all Americans whose businesses and private lives will be affected by this Big Government encroachment onto their property.”

The House passed H. J. Res. 27 on March 9, 2023 by a vote of 227 to 198 (Roll Call 142). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because both federal water regulations and the EPA are unconstitutional, and if the latest Biden administration rule were allowed to stand, activities such as farming and real estate development would be greatly hampered, since farmers and developers would be subject to increased unconstitutional permit requirements and fines concerning their treatment of almost any body of water, no matter how small.

ASEAN Relations

Constitutional Vote: No | Vote Cast: Yes

H.R. 406 would extend provisions of the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). If enacted, the United States would formally recognize ASEAN as an international organization, providing for a permanent ASEAN mission to the United States with the same diplomatic immunities and privileges enjoyed by other foreign embassies.

The House passed H.R. 406 on March 23, 2023 by a vote of 388 to 33 (Roll Call 148). We have assigned pluses to the nays because ASEAN is a political and economic union, as opposed to an individual sovereign nation. Providing a permanent ASEAN mission in the United States with the same privileges and immunities as embassies further accelerates globalist designs of collectivizing nations into regional unions rather than dealing with them as individual sovereign states. Furthermore, two of the 10 member-states that comprise ASEAN officially have Marxist-Leninist governments: the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. This resolution expands U.S. relations with the communist regimes that oppress those two nations and that heavily influence the policies of the ASEAN union.

Terminating Department of Education

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: Yes

Cost per Family: $+607

During consideration of an education-policy bill (H.R. 5), Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) offered an amendment to express the sense of Congress that the authority of the Department of Education “to operate or administer any office or program related to elementary or secondary education should be terminated on or before December 31, 2023.”

The House rejected Massie’s amendment on March 24, 2023 by a vote of 161 to 265 (Roll Call 156). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because education is not the role of government, let alone among the limited and specified powers enumerated for Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. A child’s education is the responsibility of, as well as a fundamental right of choice retained by, his or her parents. Forcing American citizens to furnish taxpayer money for a compulsory, failing, and government-run K-12 school system violates their individual liberties.

Federal Air-pollutants Law

Constitutional Vote: Yes | Vote Cast: No

During consideration of an energy and permitting package (H.R. 1), Representative Scott Perry (R-Pa.) offered an amendment to repeal Section 115 of the Clean Air Act, which allows the Environmental Protection Agency to impose emissions-reduction requirements on state governors if an “international agency” or the Department of State determines that “pollutants” emitted in the United States “endanger public health or welfare in a foreign country.”

The House rejected Perry’s amendment on March 29, 2023 by a vote of 96 to 336 (Roll Call 173). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because Section 115 of the Clean Air Act has for decades served to disguise the federal government’s unconstitutional seizure of control over the domestic energy sector — a plan designed to not only erode state sovereignty, but implement United Nations-led global “climate change” policy. The 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution clearly reserves any such regulatory powers to the “States respectively, or to the people,” as opposed to unelected, unaccountable foreign bureaucrats.

Bipartisan Debt-limit Deal

Constitutional Vote: No | Vote Cast: Yes

H.R. 3746, titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, would suspend the debt limit through January 1, 2025 and create caps on “discretionary” spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In fiscal 2024, defense spending would increase three percent, to $886.4 billion, and nondefense spending would decrease five percent, to $703.7 billion; both limits would increase by one percent for fiscal 2025. Among multiple other provisions, H.R. 3746 would provide $44.8 billion for the veterans’ toxic exposure fund and $22 billion for a Commerce Department fund, rescind $27.7 billion in unspent federal Covid-related funds, rescind $1.4 billion of the $79.3 billion provided in 2022 for IRS enforcement, enact time limits on environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, and raises the age of SNAP work requirements for able-bodied individuals to 55 while exempting certain other groups. Furthermore, the bill requires discretionary spending to decrease by one percent if Congress fails to enact on-time appropriations legislation for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In an April 28, 2023 op-ed opposing a previous iteration of the bill, Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) stated, “Going off the cliff at the Republicans’ 60-mph or the Democrats’ 80-mph results in the same thing: A horrific crash.”

The House passed H.R. 3746 on May 31, 2023 by a vote of 314 to 117 (Roll Call 243). We have assigned pluses to the nays because continuing reckless spending and debt accumulation will result in economic catastrophe, and most federal spending is for programs not authorized by the Constitution.

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