What is a Scorecard?

A legislative scorecard is a tool typically utilized to show how an elected official aligns with a set of policy positions or the mission or political philosophy of an organization. A scorecard can be as simple as a list of bills and how a lawmaker voted, while more advanced scorecards also provide analyses on the issues being scored. Scorecards can have many applications ranging from lobbying lawmakers, guiding activism, educating voters, breaking-down policy trends, and determining organization endorsements. 
The ILA’s Limited Government Index (LGI) is the first national scorecard created with a philosophy based solely on the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution. The LGI is also the most advanced and in-depth scorecard ever created, with its congressional application containing 122 policy analyses and more unique sampled roll calls than the federal scorecards produced by over a dozen of the leading national advocacy groups — combined. Below is an example of how the ILA constructs its scorecards, and what each allied organization is provided through the Limited Government Index Scorecard Platform (LGISP).

The Key Components of a Scorecard

Hover over the blue icons to learn the key components of our scorecard.
Rep. Byron DonaldsILA actively manages the data and profiles of all 8,000 federal and state lawmakers, including changes in district, chambers, personal info, etc. and ensures ratings data remain connected even if lawmakers switch chambers or leave and reenter office.

Republican – FL – 19th District

87.34% ILA deploys a complex sampling process to ensure all key votes are scored and that the sampling accurately weights and reflects the full set of policy issues that were advanced during the session.

Limited Government PercentageILA's provides not only an overall rating but also 10 separate categorical ratings for each lawmaker. Unlike commercial systems, ILA calculates 11 lifetime ratings while also ensuring this data remains connected to lawmakers as they progress in office.

2022

HR 7900 Amd. 287 ILA's research process includes not only the review of all 100,000 bills introduced nationally, but also any amendments or procedural votes that were taken. This deep level of analysis helps provide even greater insight into the policy stances of lawmakers.

House 2022

$ In addition to the ‘overall rating’, ILA's expansive bill sampling allows lawmakers to be scored across 10 major policy fields. This level of detail provides clarity on the particular policy fields a lawmaker most and least aligns with limited government.

Fueling Unnecessary Spending by Eliminating the $25,000 Cap Placed on the Artwork Purchases of U.S. Embassies Unless they Receive Congressional Approval. ILA breaks down lengthy and complex policies to effectively message the core issues at stake.

The Connolly amendment ILA reviews bill text, testimony, fiscal notes, media coverage and hundreds of thousands of pages within House and Senate journals to track changes and understand the back story on every bill as it moves through the legislative process. #287 to the National Defense Authorization Act ILA's policy expertise spans across hundreds of policy fields, ensuring proper analysis of the thousands of variations of policy to uncover any 'poison pills' or other items that may impact lawmaker positions. for Fiscal Year 2023 ends the policy placed on U.S. embassies that prevents their artwork ILA breaks down convoluted legal text into simple policy summaries that are easily understandable to all readers. purchases from exceeding $25,000 unless it is approved by congress. ‘Oppose’ ILA develops strategic messaging to best communicate the limited government position to individuals of all political philosophies. is the Limited Government Position as significant abuse of taxpayer funds ILA provides additional details surrounding the policy to help provide context to the vote and position. has been occurring at small embassy offices across the world, such as expenditures of $400,000 on a sculpture of clouds in Montenegro, over $250,000 on a mural in Mexico City, and $350,000 on a mosaic in Rio. The country is not in the position to continue funding non-essential programs when congress is running a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion. Significant spending cuts must take place across government to reverse our $30 trillion national debt, which, when coupled with the over $185 trillion in unfunded federal liabilities, represents the greatest existential threat facing this country.

Defeated, 170-275 ILA has specialized ability to extract any vote, even the amendments and procedural motions within some states that commercial platforms are unable to accurately pull, ultimately resulting in the compilation of over 300,000 votes annually. (2022)