Rep. Bennie Thompson’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Mississippi's 2nd District
Democrat
Serving Apr 13, 1993 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Thompson’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 9, 2016.
A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Thompson’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.
Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.
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Got their bills out of committee the most often compared to House DemocratsMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Thompson introduced 5 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 172: To designate the United States …; H.R. 959: Medgar Evers House Study Act; H.R. 2127: Securing Expedited Screening Act; H.R. 2390: Homeland Security University-Based Centers Review …; H.R. 3505: Department of Homeland Security Clearance … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the lowest % of bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsThompson tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 7% of Thompson’s 14 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (3rd percentile); House Democrats (5th percentile); Safe House Seats (3rd percentile); All Representatives (3rd percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 3rd most often compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsIn this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 159 bills that Thompson cosponsored, 40% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); House Democrats (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Ranked the 5th bottom/follower compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsOur unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills. For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Thompson’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (8th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (12th percentile); House Democrats (15th percentile); Safe House Seats (12th percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile). |
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Got the 8th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsThompson’s bills and resolutions had 48 cosponsors in 2015. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (13th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (18th percentile); House Democrats (19th percentile); Safe House Seats (21st percentile); All Representatives (22nd percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 40th fewest bills compared to House Democrats (tied with 1 other)Thompson cosponsored 159 bills and resolutions introduced by other Members of Congress. Cosponsorship shows a willingness to work with others to advance policy goals. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (47th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (44th percentile); House Democrats (20th percentile); Safe House Seats (42nd percentile); All Representatives (42nd percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 40th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 20 others)5 of Thompson’s bills and resolutions in 2015 had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward. Those bills were: H.R. 2127: Securing Expedited Screening Act; H.R. 2390: Homeland Security University-Based Centers Review …; H.R. 3418: Federal Protective Service Improvement and …; H.R. 3517: American Red Cross Sunshine Act; H.R. 4079: Secure Refugee Process Act of … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); Safe House Seats (85th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile). |
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Was 100th most absent in votes compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Thompson missed 4.0% of votes (28 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Thompson’s Profile » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (73rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (69th percentile); Safe House Seats (75th percentile); All Representatives (77th percentile). The Speaker of the House, per current House rules, is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings” and is never recorded as missing a vote, and may not be included in the comparison with other representatives if not voting. The delegates from the five island territories and the District of Columbia are not eligible to vote in most roll call votes and so may not appear here if not elligible for any vote during the time period of these statistics. |
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Laws EnactedThompson introduced 0 bills that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). A bill or joint resolution is considered enacted if it or an exactly identical bill to it is enacted as law. We only consider bills that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. |
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Bills IntroducedThompson introduced 14 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Democrats (67th percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (70th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.Res. 341: Raising a question of the … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Democrats (30th percentile); Safe House Seats (29th percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Committee PositionsThompson held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Thompson’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); Safe House Seats (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Thompson supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Thompson 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
Additional Notes
Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.
Missing Bills: We exclude bills from some statistics where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill because the bill’s text was replaced in whole with unrelated provisions (i.e. it became a vehicle for passage of unrelated provisions).
Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.
Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of 2015) was the 114th Congress (freshmen) or 113th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
