Congrats to Garrett

Representative Scott Garrett was one of the biggest movers up the Power Rankings in Congress for this year. He went from 411, which I wrote about a few times, up to 217. Garrett ranks 51st within the Republican Party in the House. Here's how Knowlegis describes the issues factoring into Garrett's rank:

Too few terms or years in office in Congress to have significant clout;
Successfully passed one or more bills out of committee;
Successfully amended one or more bills on the floor of the House or Senate;
Allowed to offer one or more unsuccessful amendments on the House floor.

As noted here, the bill Garrett passed out of committee is the one which will raise the insurance premiums on homes worth more than $600,000 located within flood zones.

His successful amendments range from prohibiting travel of more than 50 government employees to conferences; to getting an extension for the exemption for smaller publicly traded companies from having to conform with SOX; to increasing funding for the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Garrett's unsuccessful amendments include eliminating funding for the Alaskan Native Education Equity Program; to reducing funding for Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research; to an amendment preventing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from issuing conforming loans to most first time home buyers.

I know I've kicked around Garrett for being ranked so lowly in the last poll, so it's only fair to congratulate him on moving up in the world. As a District, we have to hold him accountable to use this new found influence to get stuff like AMT reform done.

Granted, Garrett's still a long way from the top of the Republicans, let alone the House in General. However, it was a huge jump. Now it's a matter of what he can do with it this year.