Scoring the Chamber's Scorecard

By Lizzy McNevin. March, 6th, 2021.

Sen. Joe Manchin and President Trump during a meeting with senators on Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch in February in the White House. EVAN VUCCI / AP

Here at Change the Chamber, we try to keep up with the latest news and gossip surrounding the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. By being on top of all press releases and undercurrents shifting the policy landscape we’ve become relative experts on the topic, and as such we’re often faced with queries about this opaque organization.

A question we often get from the engaged young people we work with is this: “What’s the deal with this scorecard they use to rank politicians?”

In short, the Chamber “scores” policymakers based on how they vote on key pieces of legislation and then shares their rankings annually. Members organizations can use it as a barometer for whether they’ll support these incumbents in political races, not to mention dictating who the Chamber–arguably the most powerful trade organization in the world–will throw their weight behind. This is a tactic used by many lobbying groups and NGOs, so our interest was piqued when our friends at WRI wrote this piece on the types of legislation included in the scorecard. Check out this excerpt:

[T]he U.S. Chamber of Commerce] spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to influence the actions of government, and prides itself on its many members. It advocates for what it considers to be pro-business policies. But does the Chamber always represent the interest of all its members?

When it comes to climate change and congressional campaigns, the answer is an indisputable no.

Despite strong calls for climate action from U.S. businesses, the Chamber’s 2019 Annual Scorecard does not take climate action into account. This results in a celebration of “climate deniers.”

Now, this was written before the election of Democrat Joe Biden to the presidency, which has resulted in a flurry of positive policy movements relating to climate and numerous commitments by businesses to net-zero emission goals, among other science-backed climate promises. In a patently transparent move to stay relevant, the Chamber released a statement shifting their long-held anti-science climate position to one that supports a market-based price on carbon+. Carbon pricing is a method for lowering climate-wrecking greenhouse gas emissions if effectively implemented. Implementation is the watchword here, because this lobbying behemoth has done nothing to fight against human-caused rising global temperatures that harm many of their three hundred thousand members; in fact, they have actively opposed legislation that aimed to do so.

That brings us back to their scorecard, which entirely precludes the tracking of any type of climate legislation. Now that they want a seat at the table to discuss the United States’ plan to slow the warming of the planet, they don’t even have a system in place to evaluate the politicians they spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year supporting (or opposing). The worst part of this hypocrisy is that they ultimately fund some of the worst climate deniers in Congress—more than six figures worth in the 2018 elections.

We cannot let the Chamber’s new, shallow posturing on climate action cloud the fact that they haven’t even made the concerted effort to consider candidates’ position on climate when determining their donations.

To the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we now say this: If you want to stay relevant and keep a seat at the table with the Biden administration and the 117th Congress, you have to be constructive. Commit to supporting equitable, science-backed climate policy and urge your members to do the same. You can start by tracking legislators’ voting patterns on this subject in your scorecard ASAP, or else you’ll keep getting an F from us.